User interface for identifying a location of a failed secondary storage device

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are provided herein for automatically configuring newly installed secondary storage computing devices and managing secondary storage computing devices when one or more become unavailable. For example, a storage manager can then detect the computing resources available to the newly installed secondary storage computing device, assign a role to the newly installed secondary storage computing device based on the detected computing resources, configure the newly installed secondary storage computing device with deduplication and storage policies used by the other secondary storage computing devices, re-partition secondary storage devices to allocate memory for the newly installed secondary storage computing device, and instruct other secondary storage computing devices to replicate their managed data such that the newly installed secondary storage computing device has access to the replicated data.

INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE TO ANY PRIORITY APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 62/273,286, filed Dec. 30, 2015, and entitled “REDUNDANTAND ROBUST DISTRIBUTED DEDUPLICATION DATA STORAGE SYSTEM” (attorneydocket no. COMMV.279PR; applicant docket no. 100.489.US1.135). Any andall applications, if any, for which a foreign or domestic priority claimis identified in the Application Data Sheet of the present applicationare hereby incorporated by reference under 37 CFR 1.57.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialwhich is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentand/or the patent disclosure as it appears in the United States Patentand Trademark Office patent file and/or records, but otherwise reservesall copyrights whatsoever.

BACKGROUND

Businesses recognize the commercial value of their data and seekreliable, cost-effective ways to protect the information stored on theircomputer networks while minimizing impact on productivity. A companymight back up critical computing systems such as databases, fileservers, web servers, virtual machines, and so on as part of a daily,weekly, or monthly maintenance schedule. The company may similarlyprotect computing systems used by its employees, such as those used byan accounting department, marketing department, engineering department,and so forth. Given the rapidly expanding volume of data undermanagement, companies also continue to seek innovative techniques formanaging data growth, for example by migrating data to lower-coststorage over time, reducing redundant data, pruning lower priority data,etc. Enterprises also increasingly view their stored data as a valuableasset and look for solutions that not only protect and manage, but alsoleverage their data. For instance, data analysis capabilities,information management, improved data presentation and access features,and the like, are in increasing demand.

In response to these challenges, one technique developed by storagesystem providers is data deduplication. Deduplication typically involveseliminating or reducing the amount of redundant data stored andcommunicated within a storage system, improving storage utilization. Forexample, data can be divided into units of a chosen granularity (e.g.,files or data blocks). As new data enters the system, the data units canbe checked to see if they already exist in the storage system. If thedata unit already exists, instead of storing and/or communicating aduplicate copy, the storage system stores and/or communicates areference to the existing data unit.

SUMMARY

Generally, storage systems have a finite amount of processing power andmemory. Even with the implementation of deduplication techniques toreduce the amount of stored data, administrators may find thatadditional computing resources are necessary such that the storagesystem can continue to process read and write requests at a desiredlatency level. Typically, administrators can physically add hardware tothe storage systems, such as by adding new secondary storage computingdevices that process read and write requests to secondary storage,including using deduplication information where available.

However, each time hardware is added, the hardware must be loaded withthe appropriate software, configured with the deduplication and storagepolicies of the other components of the storage system, assigned a role(e.g., a control node to manage deduplication information or a secondarynode to process read and write requests) based on the computingcapabilities of the hardware, re-partition secondary storage devices sothat memory is allocated for the new hardware, re-partitiondeduplication databases so that memory is allocated for deduplicationinformation associated with the new hardware, configure how the othercomponents should interact with the new hardware when processing readand/or write requests, and/or the like. Furthermore, hardware can fail.When hardware fails, data has to be re-routed in an appropriate manner,deduplication information may need to be rebuilt, and/or the like. Thus,adding hardware or configuring the storage system when hardware failscan be burdensome.

Accordingly, systems and methods are provided herein for automaticallyconfiguring newly installed secondary storage computing devices andmanaging secondary storage computing devices when one or more becomeunavailable. For example, an administrator can load software onto anewly installed secondary storage computing device such that the newlyinstalled secondary storage computing device is compatible with theother components of a scalable information management system. A storagemanager can then detect the computing resources available to the newlyinstalled secondary storage computing device, assign a role to the newlyinstalled secondary storage computing device based on the detectedcomputing resources, configure the newly installed secondary storagecomputing device with deduplication and storage policies used by theother secondary storage computing devices, re-partition secondarystorage devices to allocate memory for the newly installed secondarystorage computing device, and instruct other secondary storage computingdevices to replicate their managed data such that the newly installedsecondary storage computing device has access to the replicated data. Inthis way, the storage manager can automatically configure the newlyinstalled secondary storage computing device without any input from theadministrator.

Furthermore, if a secondary storage computing device becomesunavailable, the storage manager can re-route read and/or write requeststo another secondary storage computing device that acts as the nowunavailable secondary storage computing device. This may be possiblebecause the data of the now unavailable secondary storage computingdevice was replicated and the replicated data can be accessed by theother secondary storage computing device to process the read and/orwrite requests.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary informationmanagement system.

FIG. 1B is a detailed view of a primary storage device, a secondarystorage device, and some examples of primary data and secondary copydata.

FIG. 1C is a block diagram of an exemplary information management systemincluding a storage manager, one or more data agents, and one or moremedia agents.

FIG. 1D is a block diagram illustrating a scalable informationmanagement system.

FIG. 1E illustrates certain secondary copy operations according to anexemplary storage policy.

FIGS. 1F-1H are block diagrams illustrating suitable data structuresthat may be employed by the information management system.

FIG. 2A illustrates a system and technique for synchronizing primarydata to a destination such as a failover site using secondary copy data.

FIG. 2B illustrates an information management system architectureincorporating use of a network file system (NFS) protocol forcommunicating between the primary and secondary storage subsystems.

FIG. 2C is a block diagram of an example of a highly scalable manageddata pool architecture.

FIG. 3A is a block diagram illustrating a scalable informationmanagement system.

FIG. 3B is a flow diagram depicting the operations of a control mediaagent and a secondary media agent in the scalable information managementsystem of FIG. 3A.

FIG. 4A is a flow diagram depicting the addition of a first controlmedia agent in the scalable information management system of FIG. 3A.

FIG. 4B is a flow diagram depicting the addition of a first secondarymedia agent to the scalable information management system of FIG. 3A.

FIG. 4C is a flow diagram depicting the addition of a second controlmedia agent to the scalable information management system of FIG. 3A.

FIG. 4D is a flow diagram depicting the operations performed when thesecondary storage computing devices are added to the scalableinformation management system of FIG. 3A.

FIG. 5A is a flow diagram depicting the unavailability of the secondarymedia agent in the scalable information management system of FIG. 3A.

FIG. 5B is a flow diagram depicting the operations performed when thesecondary media agent is unavailable.

FIG. 6A is a flow diagram depicting the unavailability of the controlmedia agent in the scalable information management system of FIG. 3A.

FIG. 6B is a flow diagram depicting the operations performed when thecontrol media agent is unavailable.

FIG. 6C is another flow diagram depicting the operations performed whenthe control media agent is unavailable.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram depicting the file systems of the secondarystorage computing devices in the scalable information management systemof FIG. 2A.

FIG. 8 is a user interface depicting a location of a disk failure.

FIG. 9 shows a flow diagram illustrative of embodiments of a routineimplemented by the storage manager of FIG. 1A for automaticallyconfiguring a new media agent according to an illustrative embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 10 shows a flow diagram illustrative of embodiments of a routineimplemented by the storage manager of FIG. 1A for redirectinginput/output (I/O) requests intended for a first media agent to a secondmedia agent when the first media agent fails.

FIG. 11 shows a flow diagram illustrative of embodiments of a routineimplemented by the storage manager of FIG. 1A for replicatingdeduplication data when a new media agent is added so that thereplicated deduplication data can be used to process I/O requests when amedia agent fails.

FIG. 12 shows a flow diagram illustrative of embodiments of a routineimplemented by the media agent of FIG. 1C for rebuilding deduplicationdata associated with a first media agent when the first media agentfails so that I/O requests intended for the first media agent can beprocessed by a second media agent.

FIG. 13 shows a flow diagram illustrative of embodiments of a routineimplemented by the storage manager of FIG. 1A for managing I/O requestswhen a disk of a media agent fails.

FIG. 14 shows a flow diagram illustrative of embodiments of a routineimplemented by the storage manager of FIG. 1A for generating a userinterface that displays a location of a failing secondary storage devicedisk.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Detailed descriptions and examples of systems and methods according toone or more illustrative embodiments of the present invention may befound in the section entitled Example Redundant DistributedDeduplication Data Storage System, as well as in the section entitledExample Embodiments, and also in FIGS. 2A and 3A-14 herein. Furthermore,components and functionality for the automatic configuration ofsecondary storage computing devices when one or more such devices areinstalled or become unavailable may be configured and/or incorporatedinto information management systems such as those described herein inFIGS. 1A-1H and 2A-2C.

Various embodiments described herein are intimately tied to, enabled by,and would not exist except for, computer technology. For example, theautomatic configuration of secondary storage computing devices describedherein in reference to various embodiments cannot reasonably beperformed by humans alone, without the computer technology upon whichthey are implemented.

Information Management System Overview

With the increasing importance of protecting and leveraging data,organizations simply cannot risk losing critical data. Moreover, runawaydata growth and other modern realities make protecting and managing dataincreasingly difficult. There is therefore a need for efficient,powerful, and user-friendly solutions for protecting and managing data.Depending on the size of the organization, there may be many dataproduction sources which are under the purview of tens, hundreds, oreven thousands of individuals. In the past, individuals were sometimesresponsible for managing and protecting their own data, and a patchworkof hardware and software point solutions may have been used in any givenorganization. These solutions were often provided by different vendorsand had limited or no interoperability. Certain embodiments describedherein address these and other shortcomings of prior approaches byimplementing scalable, unified, organization-wide informationmanagement, including data storage management.

FIG. 1A shows one such information management system 100 (or “system100”), which generally includes combinations of hardware and softwareconfigured to protect and manage data and metadata that are generatedand used by computing devices in system 100. System 100 may be referredto in some embodiments as a “storage management system” and theoperations it performs may be referred to as “information managementoperations” or “storage operations” in some circumstances. Theorganization that employs system 100 may be a corporation or otherbusiness entity, non-profit organization, educational institution,household, governmental agency, or the like.

Generally, the systems and associated components described herein may becompatible with and/or provide some or all of the functionality of thesystems and corresponding components described in one or more of thefollowing U.S. patents and patent application publications assigned toCommvault Systems, Inc., each of which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety herein:

-   -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,035,880, entitled “Modular Backup and Retrieval        System Used in Conjunction With a Storage Area Network”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,107,298, entitled “System And Method For        Archiving Objects In An Information Store”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,246,207, entitled “System and Method for        Dynamically Performing Storage Operations in a Computer        Network”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,315,923, entitled “System And Method For        Combining Data Streams In Pipelined Storage Operations In A        Storage Network”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453, entitled “Hierarchical Systems and        Methods for Providing a Unified View of Storage Information”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,395,282, entitled “Hierarchical Backup and        Retrieval System”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,529,782, entitled “System and Methods for        Performing a Snapshot and for Restoring Data”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,617,262, entitled “System and Methods for        Monitoring Application Data in a Data Replication System”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,734,669, entitled “Managing Copies Of Data”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,747,579, entitled “Metabase for Facilitating        Data Classification”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,156,086, entitled “Systems And Methods For        Stored Data Verification”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,170,995, entitled “Method and System for Offline        Indexing of Content and Classifying Stored Data”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,230,195, entitled “System And Method For        Performing Auxiliary Storage Operations”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,285,681, entitled “Data Object Store and Server        for a Cloud Storage Environment, Including Data Deduplication        and Data Management Across Multiple Cloud Storage Sites”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,307,177, entitled “Systems And Methods For        Management Of Virtualization Data”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,364,652, entitled “Content-Aligned, Block-Based        Deduplication”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,578,109, entitled “Systems and Methods for        Retaining and Using Data Block Signatures in Data Protection        Operations”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,578,120, entitled “Block-Level Single        Instancing”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 9,020,900, entitled “Distributed Deduplicated        Storage System”;    -   U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2006/0224846, entitled “System and Method to        Support Single Instance Storage Operations”;    -   U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2009/0319534, entitled “Application-Aware and        Remote Single Instance Data Management”;    -   U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2012/0150818, entitled “Client-Side        Repository in a Networked Deduplicated Storage System”;    -   U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2012/0150826, entitled “Distributed        Deduplicated Storage System”; and    -   U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2014/0201170, entitled “High Availability        Distributed Deduplicated Storage System”.

Information management system 100 can include a variety of computingdevices and computing technologies. For instance, system 100 can includeone or more client computing devices 102 and secondary storage computingdevices 106, as well as storage manager 140 or a host computing devicefor it. Computing devices can include, without limitation, one or more:workstations, personal computers, desktop computers, or other types ofgenerally fixed computing systems such as mainframe computers, servers,and minicomputers. Other computing devices can include mobile orportable computing devices, such as one or more laptops, tabletcomputers, personal data assistants, mobile phones (such assmartphones), and other mobile or portable computing devices such asembedded computers, set top boxes, vehicle-mounted devices, wearablecomputers, etc. Servers can include mail servers, file servers, databaseservers, and web servers. Computing devices may comprise one or moreprocessors (e.g., CPU and/or single-core or multi-core processors), aswell as non-transitory computer-readable memory (e.g., random-accessmemory (RAM)) for storing computer programs to be executed by the one ormore processors. Other computer-readable memory for mass storage of datamay be packaged/configured with the computing device (e.g., an internalhard disk) and/or may be external and accessible by the computing device(e.g., network-attached storage).

In some cases, a computing device includes cloud computing resources,which may be virtual machines. For instance, one or more virtualmachines may be provided to the organization by a third-party cloudservice vendor. In some embodiments, computing devices can include oneor more virtual machine(s) running on a physical host computing device(or “host machine”) operated by the organization. As one example, theorganization may use one virtual machine as a database server andanother virtual machine as a mail server, both virtual machinesoperating on the same host machine.

A virtual machine includes an operating system and associated virtualresources, and is hosted simultaneously with another operating system ona physical host computer (or host machine). A hypervisor (typicallysoftware, and also known in the art as a virtual machine monitor or avirtual machine manager or “VMM”) sits between the virtual machine andthe hardware of the physical host machine. Examples of hypervisors asvirtualization software include ESX Server, by VMware, Inc. of PaloAlto, Calif.; Microsoft Virtual Server and Microsoft Windows ServerHyper-V, both by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.; and Sun xVM byOracle America Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif. In some embodiments, thehypervisor may be firmware or hardware or a combination of softwareand/or firmware and/or hardware. The hypervisor provides resources toeach virtual operating system such as a virtual processor, virtualmemory, a virtual network device, and a virtual disk. Each virtualmachine has one or more virtual disks. The hypervisor typically storesthe data of virtual disks in files on the file system of the physicalhost machine, called virtual machine disk files (in VMware lingo) orvirtual hard disk image files (in Microsoft lingo). For example,VMware's ESX Server provides the Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) forthe storage of virtual machine disk files. A virtual machine reads datafrom and writes data to its virtual disk much the e way that a physicalmachine reads data from and writes data to a physical disk. Examples oftechniques for implementing information management in a cloud computingenvironment are described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,285,681. Examples oftechniques for implementing information management in a virtualizedcomputing environment are described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,307,177.

Information management system 100 can also include a variety ofelectronic data storage devices, generally used for mass storage ofdata, including, e.g., primary storage devices 104 and secondary storagedevices 108. Storage devices can generally be of any suitable typeincluding, without limitation, disk drives, storage arrays (e.g.,storage-area network (SAN) and/or network-attached storage (NAS)technology), semiconductor memory (e.g., solid state storage devices),network attached storage (NAS) devices, tape libraries or othermagnetic, non-tape storage devices, optical media storage devices,DNA/RNA-based memory technology, combinations of the same, etc. In someembodiments, storage devices can form part of a distributed file system.In some cases, storage devices are provided in a cloud storageenvironment (e.g., a private cloud or one operated by a third-partyvendor), whether for primary data or secondary copies or both.

Depending on context, the term “information management system” can referto generally all of the illustrated hardware and software components inFIG. 1C, or the term may refer to only a subset of the illustratedcomponents. For instance, in some cases, system 100 generally refers toa combination of specialized components used to protect, move, manage,manipulate, analyze, and/or process data and metadata generated byclient computing devices 102. However, system 100 in some cases does notinclude the underlying components that generate and/or store primarydata 112, such as the client computing devices 102 themselves, and theprimary storage devices 104. Likewise secondary storage devices 108(e.g., a third-party provided cloud storage environment) may not be partof system 100. As an example, “information management system” maysometimes refer to one or more of the following components, which willbe described in further detail below: storage manager, data agent, andmedia agent.

Information management system 100 includes one or more client computingdevices 102 having an operating system and at least one application 110executing thereon; and one or more primary storage devices 104 storingprimary data 112. Client computing device(s) 102 and primary storagedevices 104 may generally be referred to in some cases as primarystorage subsystem 117.

Client Computing Devices, Clients, and Subclients

Typically, a variety of sources in an organization produce data to beprotected and managed. As just one illustrative example, in a corporateenvironment such data sources can be employee workstations and companyservers such as a mail server, a web server, a database server, atransaction server, or the like. In system 100, data generation sourcesinclude one or more client computing devices 102. A computing devicethat has a data agent 142 installed and operating on it is generallyreferred to as a “client computing device” 102, and may include any typeof computing device, without limitation. A client computing device 102may be associated with one or more users and/or user accounts.

A “client” is a logical component of information management system 100,which may represent a logical grouping of one or more agents installedon a client computing device 102. Storage manager 140 recognizes aclient as a component of system 100, and in some embodiments, mayautomatically create a client component the first time a data agent 142is installed on a client computing device 102. Because data generated byexecutable component(s) 110 is tracked by the associated data agent 142so that it may be properly protected in system 100, a client may be saidto generate data and to store the generated data to primary storage,such as primary storage device 104. However, the terms “client” and“client computing device” as used herein do not imply that a clientcomputing device 102 is necessarily configured in the client/serversense relative to another computing device such as a mail server, orthat a client computing device 102 cannot be a server in its own right.As just a few examples, a client computing device 102 can be and/orinclude mail servers, file servers, database servers, and web servers.

Each client computing device 102 may have application(s) 110 executingthereon which generate and manipulate the data that is to be protectedfrom loss and managed in system 100. Applications 110 generallyfacilitate the operations of an organization, and can include, withoutlimitation, mail server applications (e.g., Microsoft Exchange Server),file server applications, mail client applications (e.g., MicrosoftExchange Client), database applications or database management systems(e.g., SQL, Oracle, SAP, Lotus Notes Database), word processingapplications (e.g., Microsoft Word), spreadsheet applications, financialapplications, presentation applications, graphics and/or videoapplications, browser applications, mobile applications, entertainmentapplications, and so on. Each application 110 may be accompanied by anapplication-specific data agent 142. A file system, e.g., MicrosoftWindows Explorer, may be considered an application 110 and may beaccompanied by its own data agent 142. Client computing devices 102 canhave at least one operating system (e.g., Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X,iOS, IBM z/OS, Linux, other Unix-based operating systems, etc.)installed thereon, which may support or host one or more file systemsand other applications 110. In some embodiments, a virtual machine thatexecutes on a host client computing device 102 may be considered anapplication 110 and may be accompanied by a specific data agent 142(e.g., virtual server data agent).

Client computing devices 102 and other components in system 100 can beconnected to one another via one or more electronic communicationpathways 114. For example, a first communication pathway 114 maycommunicatively couple client computing device 102 and secondary storagecomputing device 106; a second communication pathway 114 maycommunicatively couple storage manager 140 and client computing device102; and a third communication pathway 114 may communicatively couplestorage manager 140 and secondary storage computing device 106, etc.(see, e.g., FIG. 1A and FIG. 1C). A communication pathway 114 caninclude one or more networks or other connection types including one ormore of the following, without limitation: the Internet, a wide areanetwork (WAN), a local area network (LAN), a Storage Area Network (SAN),a Fibre Channel (FC) connection, a Small Computer System Interface(SCSI) connection, a virtual private network (VPN), a token ring orTCP/IP based network, an intranet network, a point-to-point link, acellular network, a wireless data transmission system, a two-way cablesystem, an interactive kiosk network, a satellite network, a broadbandnetwork, a baseband network, a neural network, a mesh network, an ad hocnetwork, other appropriate computer or telecommunications networks,combinations of the same or the like. Communication pathways 114 in somecases may also include application programming interfaces (APIs)including, e.g., cloud service provider APIs, virtual machine managementAPIs, and hosted service provider APIs. The underlying infrastructure ofcommunication pathways 114 may be wired and/or wireless, analog and/ordigital, or any combination thereof; and the facilities used may beprivate, public, third-party provided, or any combination thereof,without limitation.

A “subclient” is a logical grouping of all or part of a client's primarydata 112. In general a subclient may be defined according to how thesubclient data is to be protected as a unit in system 100. For example,a subclient may be associated with a certain storage policy. A givenclient may thus comprise several subclients, each subclient associatedwith a different storage policy. For example, some files may form afirst subclient that requires compression and deduplication and isassociated with a first storage policy. Other files of the client mayform a second subclient that requires a different retention schedule aswell as encryption, and may be associated with a different, secondstorage policy. As a result, though the primary data may be generated bythe same application 110, and may belong to one given client, portionsof the data may be assigned to different subclients for distincttreatment by the information management system. More detail onsubclients is given in regard to storage policies below.

Primary Data and Exemplary Primary Storage Devices

Primary data 112 is generally production data or other “live” datagenerated by the operating system and/or applications 110 executing onclient computing device 102. Primary data 112 is generally stored onprimary storage device(s) 104 and is organized via a file systemoperating on the client computing device 102. Thus, client computingdevice(s) 102 and corresponding applications 110 may create, access,modify, write, delete, and otherwise use primary data 112. Primary data112 is generally in the native format of the source application 110.According to certain aspects, primary data 112 is an initial or firststored body of data generated by the source application 110. Primarydata 112 in some cases is created substantially directly from datagenerated by the corresponding source application 110.

Primary storage devices 104 storing primary data 112 may be relativelyfast and/or expensive technology (e.g., a disk drive, a hard-diskstorage array, solid state memory, etc.), typically because they mustsupport high-performance live production environments. Primary data 112may be highly changeable and/or may be intended for relatively shortterm retention (e.g., hours, days, or weeks). According to someembodiments, client computing device 102 can access primary data 112stored in primary storage device 104 by making conventional file systemcalls via the operating system. Primary data 112 may include structureddata (e.g., database files), unstructured data (e.g., documents), and/orsemi-structured data. See, e.g., FIG. 1B.

It can be useful in performing certain tasks to organize primary data112 into units of different granularities. In general, primary data 112can include files, directories, file system volumes, data blocks,extents, or any other hierarchies or organizations of data objects. Asused herein, a “data object” can refer to (i) any file that is currentlyaddressable by a file system or that was previously addressable by thefile system (e.g., an archive file), and (ii) a subset of such a file(e.g., a data block, an extent, etc.).

It can also be useful in performing certain functions of system 100 toaccess and modify metadata within primary data 112. Metadata generallyincludes information about data objects and/or characteristicsassociated with the data objects. For simplicity herein, it is to beunderstood that, unless expressly stated otherwise, any reference toprimary data 112 generally also includes its associated metadata, butreferences to metadata generally do not include the primary data.Metadata can include, without limitation, one or more of the following:the data owner (e.g., the client or user that generates the data), thelast modified time (e.g., the time of the most recent modification ofthe data object), a data object name (e.g., a file name), a data objectsize (e.g., a number of bytes of data), information about the content(e.g., an indication as to the existence of a particular search term),user-supplied tags, to/from information for email (e.g., an emailsender, recipient, etc.), creation date, file type (e.g., format orapplication type), last accessed time, application type (e.g., type ofapplication that generated the data object), location/network (e.g., acurrent, past or future location of the data object and network pathwaysto/from the data object), geographic location (e.g., GPS coordinates),frequency of change (e.g., a period in which the data object ismodified), business unit (e.g., a group or department that generates,manages or is otherwise associated with the data object), aginginformation (e.g., a schedule, such as a time period, in which the dataobject is migrated to secondary or long term storage), boot sectors,partition layouts, file location within a file folder directorystructure, user permissions, owners, groups, access control lists(ACLs), system metadata (e.g., registry information), combinations ofthe same or other similar information related to the data object. Inaddition to metadata generated by or related to file systems andoperating systems, some applications 110 and/or other components ofsystem 100 maintain indices of metadata for data objects, e.g., metadataassociated with individual email messages. The use of metadata toperform classification and other functions is described in greaterdetail below.

Each client computing device 102 is generally associated with and/or incommunication with one or more primary storage devices 104 storingcorresponding primary data 112. A client computing device 102 may beconsidered to be associated with or in communication with a primarystorage device 104 if it is capable of one or more of: routing and/orstoring data (e.g., primary data 112) to the particular primary storagedevice 104, coordinating the routing and/or storing of data to theparticular primary storage device 104, retrieving data from theparticular primary storage device 104, coordinating the retrieval ofdata from the particular primary storage device 104, and modifyingand/or deleting data in the particular primary storage device 104. Aclient computing device 102 may be said to access data stored in anassociated storage device 104.

Primary storage device 104 may be dedicated or shared. In some cases,each primary storage device 104 is dedicated to an associated clientcomputing device 102, e.g., a local disk drive. In other cases, one ormore primary storage devices 104 can be shared by multiple clientcomputing devices 102, e.g., via a local network, in a cloud storageimplementation, etc. As one example, primary storage device 104 can be astorage array shared by a group of client computing devices 102, such asEMC Clariion, EMC Symmetrix, EMC Celerra, Dell EqualLogic, IBM XIV,NetApp FAS, HP EVA, and HP 3PAR.

Information management system 100 may also include hosted services (notshown), which may be hosted in some cases by an entity other than theorganization that employs the other components of system 100. Forinstance, the hosted services may be provided by online serviceproviders. Such service providers can provide social networkingservices, hosted email services, or hosted productivity applications orother hosted applications such as software-as-a-service (SaaS),platform-as-a-service (PaaS), application service providers (ASPs),cloud services, or other mechanisms for delivering functionality via anetwork. As it services users, each hosted service may generateadditional data and metadata, which may be managed by system 100, e.g.,as primary data 112. In some cases, the hosted services may be accessedusing one of the applications 110. As an example, a hosted mail servicemay be accessed via browser running on a client computing device 102.

Secondary Copies and Exemplary Secondary Storage Devices

Primary data 112 stored on primary storage devices 104 may becompromised in some cases, such as when an employee deliberately oraccidentally deletes or overwrites primary data 112. Or primary storagedevices 104 can be damaged, lost, or otherwise corrupted. For recoveryand/or regulatory compliance purposes, it is therefore useful togenerate and maintain copies of primary data 112. Accordingly, system100 includes one or more secondary storage computing devices 106 and oneor more secondary storage devices 108 configured to create and store oneor more secondary copies 116 of primary data 112 including itsassociated metadata. The secondary storage computing devices 106 and thesecondary storage devices 108 may be referred to as secondary storagesubsystem 118.

Creation of secondary copies 116 can help in search and analysis effortsand meet other information management goals as well, such as: restoringdata and/or metadata if an original version is lost (e.g., by deletion,corruption, or disaster); allowing point-in-time recovery; complyingwith regulatory data retention and electronic discovery (e-discovery)requirements; reducing utilized storage capacity in the productionsystem and/or in secondary storage; facilitating organization and searchof data; improving user access to data files across multiple computingdevices and/or hosted services; and implementing data retentionpolicies.

A secondary copy 116 can comprise a separate stored copy of data that isderived from one or more earlier-created stored copies (e.g., derivedfrom primary data 112 or from another secondary copy 116). Secondarycopies 116 can include point-in-time data, and may be intended forrelatively long-term retention, before some or all of the data is movedto other storage or discarded. In some cases, a secondary copy 116 maybe in a different storage device than other previously stored copies;and/or may be remote from other previously stored copies. Secondarycopies 116 can be stored in the same storage device as primary data 112.For example, a disk array capable of performing hardware snapshotsstores primary data 112 and creates and stores hardware snapshots of theprimary data 112 as secondary copies 116. Secondary copies 116 may bestored in relatively slow and/or lower cost storage (e.g., magnetictape). A secondary copy 116 may be stored in a backup or archive format,or in some other format different from the native source applicationformat or other format of primary data 112.

Secondary storage computing devices 106 may index secondary copies 116(e.g., using a media agent 144), so that users can browse and restore ata later time. After creation of a secondary copy 116 representative ofcertain primary data 112, a pointer or other location indicia (e.g., astub) may be placed in primary data 112, or be otherwise associated withprimary data 112, to indicate the current location on secondary storagedevice(s) 108 of a particular secondary copy 116.

Since an instance of a data object or metadata in primary data 112 maychange over time as it is modified by application 110 (or hosted serviceor the operating system), system 100 may create and manage multiplesecondary copies 116 of a particular data object or metadata, each copyrepresenting the state of the data object in primary data 112 at aparticular point in time. Moreover, since an instance of a data objectin primary data 112 may eventually be deleted from primary storagedevice 104 and the file system, system 100 may continue to managepoint-in-time representations of that data object, even though theinstance in primary data 112 no longer exists.

For virtual machines, the operating system and other applications 110 ofclient computing device(s) 102 may execute within or under themanagement of virtualization software (e.g., a VMM), and the primarystorage device(s) 104 may comprise a virtual disk created on a physicalstorage device. System 100 may create secondary copies 116 of the filesor other data objects in a virtual disk file and/or secondary copies 116of the entire virtual disk file itself (e.g., of an entire .vmdk file).

Secondary copies 116 may be distinguished from corresponding primarydata 112. First, secondary copies 116 can be stored in a differentformat (e.g., backup, archive, or other non-native format) than primarydata 112. For this or other reasons, secondary copies 116 may not bedirectly useable by applications 110 or client computing device 102(e.g., via standard system calls or otherwise) without modification,processing, or other intervention by system 100 which may be referred toas “restore” operations. Secondary copies 116 may have been processed bydata agent 142 and/or media agent 144 in the course of being created(e.g., compression, deduplication, encryption, integrity markers,indexing, formatting, etc.), and thus secondary copy 116 may representsource primary data 112 without necessarily being exactly identical tothe source.

Second, secondary copies 116 may be stored on a secondary storage device108 that is inaccessible to application 110 running on client computingdevice 102 and/or hosted service. Some secondary copies 116 may be“offline copies,” in that they are not readily available (e.g., notmounted to tape or disk). Offline copies can include copies of data thatsystem 100 can access without human intervention (e.g., tapes within anautomated tape library, but not yet mounted in a drive), and copies thatthe system 100 can access only with some human intervention (e.g., tapeslocated at an offsite storage site).

Using Intermediate Devices for Creating Secondary Copies—SecondaryStorage Computing Devices

Creating secondary copies can be challenging. For instance, hundreds orthousands of client computing devices 102 may be continually generatinglarge volumes of primary data 112 to be protected. Also, there can besignificant overhead involved in the creation of secondary copies 116.Moreover, secondary storage devices 108 may be special-purposecomponents, and devices that write to, read from, or otherwise interactwith secondary storage devices 108, such as secondary storage computingdevices 106 and corresponding media agents 144, may require specializedprogrammed intelligence and/or hardware capability. Client computingdevices 102 may interact directly with a secondary storage device 108 tocreate secondary copies 116; however, in view of the factors describedabove, this approach can negatively impact the ability of clientcomputing device 102 to serve/service application 110 and produceprimary data 112. Further, any given client computing device 102 may notbe optimized for interaction with certain secondary storage devices 108.

Thus, information management system 100 may include one or more softwareand/or hardware components which generally act as intermediaries betweenclient computing devices 102 (that generate primary data 112) andsecondary storage devices 108 (that store secondary copies 116). Inaddition to off-loading certain responsibilities from client computingdevices 102, these intermediate components can provide other benefits.For instance, as discussed further below with respect to FIG. 1D,distributing some of the work involved in creating secondary copies 116can enhance scalability and improve system performance. For instance,using specialized secondary storage computing devices 106 and mediaagents 144 for interfacing with secondary storage devices 108 and/or forperforming certain data processing operations can greatly improve thespeed with which system 100 performs information management operationsand can also improve the capacity of the system to handle large numbersof such operations, while reducing the computational load on theproduction environment of client computing devices 102. The intermediatecomponents can include one or more secondary storage computing devices106 as shown in FIG. 1A and/or one or more media agents 144. Mediaagents are discussed further below (e.g., with respect to FIGS. 1C-1E).

Secondary storage computing device(s) 106 can comprise any of thecomputing devices described above, without limitation. In some cases,secondary storage computing device(s) 106 also include specializedhardware and/or software componentry for interacting with certainsecondary storage device(s) 108 with which they may be speciallyassociated.

To create a secondary copy 116 involving the copying of data fromprimary storage subsystem 117 to secondary storage subsystem 118, clientcomputing device 102 may communicate the primary data 112 to be copied(or a processed version thereof) to the designated secondary storagecomputing device 106, via a communication pathway 114. Secondary storagecomputing device 106 in turn may perform further processing and mayconvey the data (or a processed version thereof) to secondary storagedevice 108. One or more secondary copies 116 may be created fromexisting secondary copies 116, such as in the case of an auxiliary copyoperation, described further below.

Exemplary Primary Data and an Exemplary Secondary Copy

FIG. 1B is a detailed view showing some specific examples of primarydata stored on primary storage device(s) 104 and secondary copy datastored on secondary storage device(s) 108, with other components of thesystem removed for the purposes of illustration. Stored on the primarystorage device(s) 104 are primary data 112 objects including wordprocessing documents 119A-B, spreadsheets 120, presentation documents122, video files 124, image files 126, email mailboxes 128 (andcorresponding email messages 129A-C), html/xml or other types of markuplanguage files 130, databases 132 and corresponding tables or other datastructures 133A-133C). Some or all primary data 112 objects areassociated with corresponding metadata (e.g., “Meta1-11”), which mayinclude file system metadata and/or application-specific metadata.Stored on the secondary storage device(s) 108 are secondary copy 116data objects 134A-C which may include copies of or may otherwiserepresent corresponding primary data 112.

Secondary copy data objects 134A-C can individually represent more thanone primary data object. For example, secondary copy data object 134Arepresents three separate primary data objects 133C, 122, and 129C(represented as 133C′, 122′, and 129C′, respectively, and accompanied bycorresponding metadata Meta11, Meta3, and Meta8, respectively).Moreover, as indicated by the prime mark (′), secondary storagecomputing devices 106 or other components in secondary storage subsystem118 may process the data received from primary storage subsystem 117 andstore a secondary copy including a transformed and/or supplementedrepresentation of a primary data object and/or metadata that isdifferent from the original format, e.g., in a compressed, encrypted,deduplicated, or other modified format. For instance, secondary storagecomputing devices 106 can generate new metadata or other informationbased on said processing, and store the newly generated informationalong with the secondary copies. Secondary copy data object 134Brepresents primary data objects 120, 133B, and 119A as 120′, 133B′, and119A′, respectively, accompanied by corresponding metadata Meta2,Meta10, and Meta1, respectively. Also, secondary copy data object 134Crepresents primary data objects 133A, 1196, and 129A as 133A′, 1196′,and 129A′, respectively, accompanied by corresponding metadata Meta9,Meta5, and Meta6, respectively.

Exemplary Information Management System Architecture

Information management system 100 can incorporate a variety of differenthardware and software components, which can in turn be organized withrespect to one another in many different configurations, depending onthe embodiment. There are critical design choices involved in specifyingthe functional responsibilities of the components and the role of eachcomponent in system 100. Such design choices can impact performance aswell as the adaptability of system 100 to data growth and other changingcircumstances.

FIG. 1C shows an information management system 100 designed according tothese considerations and which includes: storage manager 140, one ormore data agents 142 executing on client computing device(s) 102 andconfigured to process primary data 112, and one or more media agents 144executing on the one or more secondary storage computing devices 106 forperforming tasks involving the secondary storage devices 108.

Storage Manager

Storage manager 140 is a centralized storage and/or information managerthat is configured to perform certain control functions and also tostore certain critical information about system 100. As noted, thenumber of components in system 100 and the amount of data undermanagement can be large. Managing the components and data is therefore asignificant task, which can grow unpredictably as the number ofcomponents and data scale to meet the needs of the organization. Forthese and other reasons, according to certain embodiments,responsibility for controlling system 100, or at least a significantportion of that responsibility, is allocated to storage manager 140.Storage manager 140 can be adapted independently according to changingcircumstances, without having to replace or re-design the remainder ofthe system. Moreover, a computing device for hosting and/or operating asstorage manager 140 can be selected to best suit the functions andnetworking needs of storage manager 140. These and other advantages aredescribed in further detail below and with respect to FIG. 1D.

Storage manager 140 may be a software module or other application,which, in some embodiments operates in conjunction with one or moreassociated data structures such as a dedicated database (e.g.,management database 146). In some embodiments, storage manager 140 isitself a computing device that performs the functions described herein.The storage manager generally initiates, performs, coordinates and/orcontrols storage and other information management operations performedby the system 100, e.g., to protect and control primary data 112 andsecondary copies 116. In general, storage manager 100 may be said tomanage information management system 100, which includes managingconstituent components such as data agents and media agents, etc.

As shown by the dashed arrowed lines 114 in FIG. 1C, storage manager 140may communicate with and/or control some or all elements of theinformation management system 100, such as data agents 142 and mediaagents 144. In this manner, storage manager 140 may control theoperation of various hardware and software components in system 100. Incertain embodiments, control information originates from storage manager140 and status as well as index reporting is transmitted to storagemanager 140 by the managed components, whereas payload data and metadataare generally communicated between data agents 142 and media agents 144(or otherwise between client computing device(s) 102 and secondarystorage computing device(s) 106), e.g., at the direction of and underthe management of storage manager 140. Control information can generallyinclude parameters and instructions for carrying out informationmanagement operations, such as, without limitation, instructions toperform a task associated with an operation, timing informationspecifying when to initiate a task, data path information specifyingwhat components to communicate with or access in carrying out anoperation, and the like. In other embodiments, some informationmanagement operations are controlled or initiated by other components ofsystem 100 (e.g., by media agents 144 or data agents 142), instead of orin combination with storage manager 140.

According to certain embodiments, storage manager 140 provides one ormore of the following functions:

-   -   communicating with data agents 142 and media agents 144,        including transmitting instructions, messages, and/or queries,        as well as receiving status reports, index information,        messages, and/or queries, and responding to same;    -   initiating execution of information management operations;    -   initiating restore and recovery operations;    -   managing secondary storage devices 108 and inventory/capacity of        the same;    -   allocating secondary storage devices 108 for secondary copy        operations;    -   reporting, searching, and/or classification of data in system        100;    -   monitoring completion of and status reporting related to        information management operations and jobs;    -   tracking movement of data within system 100;    -   tracking age information relating to secondary copies 116,        secondary storage devices 108, comparing the age information        against retention guidelines, and initiating data pruning when        appropriate;    -   tracking logical associations between components in system 100;    -   protecting metadata associated with system 100, e.g., in        management database 146;    -   implementing job management, schedule management, event        management, alert management, reporting, job history        maintenance, user security management, disaster recovery        management, and/or user interfacing for system administrators        and/or end users of system 100;    -   sending, searching, and/or viewing of log files; and    -   implementing operations management functionality.

Storage manager 140 may maintain an associated database 146 (or “storagemanager database 146” or “management database 146”) ofmanagement-related data and information management policies 148.Database 146 can be stored in computer memory accessible by storagemanager 140. Database 146 may include a management index 150 (or “index150”) or other data structure(s) that may store: logical associationsbetween components of the system; user preferences and/or profiles(e.g., preferences regarding encryption, compression, or deduplicationof primary data or secondary copies; preferences regarding thescheduling, type, or other aspects of secondary copy or otheroperations; mappings of particular information management users or useraccounts to certain computing devices or other components, etc.;management tasks; media containerization; or other useful data. Forexample, storage manager 140 may use index 150 to track logicalassociations between media agents 144 and secondary storage devices 108and/or movement of data from primary storage devices 104 to secondarystorage devices 108. For instance, index 150 may store data associatinga client computing device 102 with a particular media agent 144 and/orsecondary storage device 108, as specified in an information managementpolicy 148.

Administrators and others may configure and initiate certain informationmanagement operations on an individual basis. But while this may beacceptable for some recovery operations or other infrequent tasks, it isoften not workable for implementing on-going organization-wide dataprotection and management. Thus, system 100 may utilize informationmanagement policies 148 for specifying and executing informationmanagement operations on an automated basis. Generally, an informationmanagement policy 148 can include a stored data structure or otherinformation source that specifies parameters (e.g., criteria and rules)associated with storage management or other information managementoperations. Storage manager 140 can process an information managementpolicy 148 and/or index 150 and, based on the results, identify aninformation management operation to perform, identify the appropriatecomponents in system 100 to be involved in the operation (e.g., clientcomputing devices 102 and corresponding data agents 142, secondarystorage computing devices 106 and corresponding media agents 144, etc.),establish connections to those components and/or between thosecomponents, and/or instruct and control those components to carry outthe operation. In this manner, system 100 can translate storedinformation into coordinated activity among the various computingdevices in system 100.

Management database 146 may maintain information management policies 148and associated data, although information management policies 148 can bestored in computer memory at any appropriate location outside managementdatabase 146. For instance, an information management policy 148 such asa storage policy may be stored as metadata in a media agent database 152or in a secondary storage device 108 (e.g., as an archive copy) for usein restore or other information management operations, depending on theembodiment. Information management policies 148 are described furtherbelow. According to certain embodiments, management database 146comprises a relational database (e.g., an SQL database) for trackingmetadata, such as metadata associated with secondary copy operations(e.g., what client computing devices 102 and corresponding subclientdata were protected and where the secondary copies are stored and whichmedia agent 144 performed the secondary storage). This and othermetadata may additionally be stored in other locations, such as atsecondary storage computing device 106 or on the secondary storagedevice 108, allowing data recovery without the use of storage manager140 in some cases. Thus, management database 146 may comprise dataneeded to kick off secondary copy operations (e.g., storage policies),status and reporting information about completed jobs (e.g., status onyesterday's backup jobs), and additional information sufficient toenable restore and disaster recovery operations (e.g., media agentassociations, location indexing, content indexing, etc.)

Storage manager 140 may include a jobs agent 156, a user interface 158,and a management agent 154, all of which may be implemented asinterconnected software modules or application programs. These aredescribed further below.

Jobs agent 156 in some embodiments initiates, controls, and/or monitorsthe status of some or all information management operations previouslyperformed, currently being performed, or scheduled to be performed bysystem 100. A job may be a logical grouping of information managementoperations such as generating backup copies of a primary data 112subclient at a certain time every day. Thus, jobs agent 156 may accessinformation management policies 148 (e.g., in management database 146)to determine when and how to initiate/control jobs in system 100.

Storage Manager User Interfaces

User interface 158 may include information processing and displaysoftware, such as a graphical user interface (GUI), an applicationprogram interface (API), and/or other interactive interface(s) throughwhich users and system processes can retrieve information about thestatus of information management operations or issue instructions tosystem 100 and/or its constituent components. Via user interface 158,users may issue instructions to the components in system 100 regardingperformance of secondary copy and recovery operations. For example, auser may modify a schedule concerning the number of pending secondarycopy operations. As another example, a user may employ the GUI to viewthe status of pending secondary copy jobs or to monitor the status ofcertain components in system 100 (e.g., the amount of capacity left in astorage device). Storage manager 140 may track information that permitsit to select, designate, or otherwise identify content indices,deduplication databases, or similar databases or resources or data setswithin its information management cell (or another cell) to be searchedin response to certain queries. Such queries may be entered by the userby interacting with user interface 158.

Various embodiments of information management system 100 may beconfigured and/or designed to generate user interface data useable forrendering the various interactive user interfaces described. The userinterface data may be used by system 100 and/or by another system,device, and/or software program (for example, a browser program), torender the interactive user interfaces. The interactive user interfacesmay be displayed on, for example, electronic displays (including, forexample, touch-enabled displays), consoles, etc., whetherdirect-connected to storage manager 140 or communicatively coupledremotely, e.g., via an internet connection. The present disclosuredescribes various embodiments of interactive and dynamic userinterfaces, some of which may be generated by user interface agent 158,and which are the result of significant technological development. Theuser interfaces described herein may provide improved human-computerinteractions, allowing for significant cognitive and ergonomicefficiencies and advantages over previous systems, including reducedmental workloads, improved decision-making, and the like. User interface158 may operate in a single integrated view or console (not shown). Theconsole may support a reporting capability for generating a variety ofreports, which may be tailored to a particular aspect of informationmanagement.

User interfaces are not exclusive to storage manager 140 and in someembodiments a user may access information locally from a computingdevice component of system 100. For example, some information pertainingto installed data agents 142 and associated data streams may beavailable from client computing device 102. Likewise, some informationpertaining to media agents 144 and associated data streams may beavailable from secondary storage computing device 106.

Storage Manager Management Agent

Management agent 154 can provide storage manager 140 with the ability tocommunicate with other components within information management system100 and/or with other information management cells via network protocolsand application programming interfaces (APIs) including, e.g., HTTP,HTTPS, FTP, REST, virtualization software APIs, cloud service providerAPIs, and hosted service provider APIs.

Management agent 154 also allows multiple information management cellsto communicate with one another. For example, system 100 in some casesmay be one information management cell in a network of multiple cellsadjacent to one another or otherwise logically related, e.g., in a WANor LAN. With this arrangement, the cells may communicate with oneanother through respective management agents 154. Inter-cellcommunication and hierarchy is described in greater detail in e.g., U.S.Pat. No. 7,343,453.

Information Management Cell

An “information management cell” (or “storage operation cell” or “cell”)may generally include a logical and/or physical grouping of acombination of hardware and software components associated withperforming information management operations on electronic data,typically one storage manager 140 and at least one data agent 142(executing on a client computing device 102) and at least one mediaagent 144 (executing on a secondary storage computing device 106). Forinstance, the components shown in FIG. 1C may together form aninformation management cell. Thus, in some configurations, a system 100may be referred to as an information management cell. A given cell maybe identified by the identity of its storage manager 140, which isgenerally responsible for managing the cell.

Multiple cells may be organized hierarchically, so that cells mayinherit properties from hierarchically superior cells or be controlledby other cells in the hierarchy (automatically or otherwise).Alternatively, in some embodiments, cells may inherit or otherwise beassociated with information management policies, preferences,information management operational parameters, or other properties orcharacteristics according to their relative position in a hierarchy ofcells. Cells may also be organized hierarchically according to function,geography, architectural considerations, or other factors useful ordesirable in performing information management operations. For example,a first cell may represent a geographic segment of an enterprise, suchas a Chicago office, and a second cell may represent a differentgeographic segment, such as a New York City office. Other cells mayrepresent departments within a particular office, e.g., human resources,finance, engineering, etc. Where delineated by function, a first cellmay perform one or more first types of information management operations(e.g., one or more first types of secondary copies at a certainfrequency), and a second cell may perform one or more second types ofinformation management operations (e.g., one or more second types ofsecondary copies at a different frequency and under different retentionrules). In general, the hierarchical information is maintained by one ormore storage managers 140 that manage the respective cells (e.g., incorresponding management database(s) 146).

Data Agents

A variety of different applications 110 can operate on a given clientcomputing device 102, including operating systems, file systems,database applications, e-mail applications, and virtual machines, justto name a few. And, as part of the process of creating and restoringsecondary copies 116, the client computing device 102 may be tasked withprocessing and preparing the primary data 112 generated by these variousapplications 110. Moreover, the nature of the processing/preparation candiffer across application types, e.g., due to inherent structural,state, and formatting differences among applications 110 and/or theoperating system of client computing device 102. Each data agent 142 istherefore advantageously configured in some embodiments to assist in theperformance of information management operations based on the type ofdata that is being protected at a client-specific and/orapplication-specific level.

Data agent 142 is a component of information system 100 and is generallydirected by storage manager 140 in creating or restoring secondarycopies 116. Data agent 142 may be a software program (e.g., a set ofexecutable binary files) that executes on the same client computingdevice 102 as the associated application 110 that data agent 142 isconfigured to protect. Data agent 142 is generally responsible formanaging, initiating, or otherwise assisting in the performance ofinformation management operations in reference to its associatedapplication(s) 110 and corresponding primary data 112 which isgenerated/accessed by the particular application(s). For instance, dataagent 142 may take part in copying, archiving, migrating, and/orreplicating of primary data 112 stored in the primary storage device(s)104. Data agent 142 may receive control information from storage manager140, such as commands to transfer copies of data objects and/or metadatato one or more media agents 144. Data agent 142 also may compress,deduplicate, and encrypt primary data 112 before transmitting it tomedia agent 144. Data agent 142 also may receive instructions fromstorage manager 140 to restore (or assist in restoring) a secondary copy116 from secondary storage device 108 to primary storage 104, such thatthe restored data may be accessed by application 110.

Each data agent 142 may be specialized for a particular application 110.For instance, different individual data agents 142 may be designed tohandle Microsoft Exchange data, Lotus Notes data, Microsoft Windows filesystem data, Microsoft Active Directory Objects data, SQL Server data,SharePoint data, Oracle database data, SAP database data, virtualmachines and/or associated data, and other types of data. A file systemdata agent, for example, may handle data files and/or other file systeminformation. If a client computing device 102 has two or more types ofdata 112, a specialized data agent 142 may be used for each data type.For example, to backup, migrate, and/or restore all of the data on aMicrosoft Exchange server, the client computing device 102 may use: aMicrosoft Exchange Mailbox data agent 142 to back up the Exchangemailboxes; a Microsoft Exchange Database data agent 142 to back up theExchange databases; a Microsoft Exchange Public Folder data agent 142 toback up the Exchange Public Folders; and a Microsoft Windows File Systemdata agent 142 to back up the file system of client computing device102. In such embodiments, these specialized data agents 142 may betreated as four separate data agents 142 even though they operate on thesame client computing device 102. Other examples may include archivemanagement data agents such as a migration archiver or a compliancearchiver, Quick Recovery® agents, and continuous data replicationagents. Application-specific data agents 142 can provide improvedperformance as compared to generic agents. For instance, becauseapplication-specific data agents 142 may only handle data for a singlesoftware application, the design of the data agent 142 can bestreamlined. The data agent 142 may therefore execute faster and consumeless persistent storage and/or operating memory than data agentsdesigned to generically accommodate multiple different softwareapplications 110.

Each data agent 142 may be configured to access data and/or metadatastored in the primary storage device(s) 104 associated with data agent142 and its host client computing device 102, and process the dataappropriately. For example, during a secondary copy operation, dataagent 142 may arrange or assemble the data and metadata into one or morefiles having a certain format (e.g., a particular backup or archiveformat) before transferring the file(s) to a media agent 144 or othercomponent. The file(s) may include a list of files or other metadata.

In some embodiments, a data agent 142 may be distributed between clientcomputing device 102 and storage manager 140 (and any other intermediatecomponents) or may be deployed from a remote location or its functionsapproximated by a remote process that performs some or all of thefunctions of data agent 142. In addition, a data agent 142 may performsome functions provided by media agent 144. Other embodiments may employone or more generic data agents 142 that can handle and process datafrom two or more different applications 110, or that can handle andprocess multiple data types, instead of or in addition to usingspecialized data agents 142. For example, one generic data agent 142 maybe used to back up, migrate and restore Microsoft Exchange Mailbox dataand Microsoft Exchange Database data, while another generic data agentmay handle Microsoft Exchange Public Folder data and Microsoft WindowsFile System data.

Media Agents

As noted, off-loading certain responsibilities from client computingdevices 102 to intermediate components such as secondary storagecomputing device(s) 106 and corresponding media agent(s) 144 can providea number of benefits including improved performance of client computingdevice 102, faster information management operations, and enhancedscalability. In one example which will be discussed further below, mediaagent 144 can act as a local cache of recently-copied data and/ormetadata that it stored to secondary storage device(s) 108, thusimproving restore capabilities and performance.

Media agent 144 is a component of information system 100 and isgenerally directed by storage manager 140 in creating or restoringsecondary copies 116. Whereas storage manager 140 generally managesinformation management system 100, media agent 144 provides a portal tosecondary storage devices 108. Media agent 144 may be a software program(e.g., a set of executable binary files) that executes on a secondarystorage computing device 106. Media agent 144 generally manages,coordinates, and facilitates the transmission of data between a clientcomputing device 102 (executing a data agent 142) and secondary storagedevice(s) 108. For instance, other components in the system may interactwith media agent 144 to gain access to data stored on secondary storagedevice(s) 108, (e.g., to browse, read, write, modify, delete, or restoredata). Moreover, media agents 144 can generate and store informationrelating to characteristics of the stored data and/or metadata, or cangenerate and store other types of information that generally providesinsight into the contents of the secondary storage devices 108—generallyreferred to as indexing of the stored secondary copies 116.

Media agents 144 can comprise separate nodes of system 100 (e.g., nodesthat are separate from client computing devices 102, storage manager140, and/or secondary storage devices 108). In general, a node can be alogically and/or physically separate component, and in some cases is acomponent that is individually addressable or otherwise identifiable. Inaddition, each media agent 144 may operate on a dedicated secondarystorage computing device 106, while in other embodiments a plurality ofmedia agents 144 may operate on the same secondary storage computingdevice 106.

A media agent 144 may be associated with a particular secondary storagedevice 108 if that media agent 144 is capable of one or more of: routingand/or storing data to the particular secondary storage device 108;coordinating the routing and/or storing of data to the particularsecondary storage device 108; retrieving data from the particularsecondary storage device 108; coordinating the retrieval of data fromthe particular secondary storage device 108; and modifying and/ordeleting data retrieved from the particular secondary storage device108. Media agent 144 in certain embodiments is physically separate fromthe associated secondary storage device 108. For instance, a media agent144 may operate on a secondary storage computing device 106 in adistinct housing, package, and/or location from the associated secondarystorage device 108. In one example, a media agent 144 operates on afirst server computer and is in communication with a secondary storagedevice(s) 108 operating in a separate rack-mounted RAID-based system.

A media agent 144 associated with a particular secondary storage device108 may instruct secondary storage device 108 to perform an informationmanagement task. For instance, a media agent 144 may instruct a tapelibrary to use a robotic arm or other retrieval means to load or eject acertain storage media, and to subsequently archive, migrate, or retrievedata to or from that media, e.g., for the purpose of restoring data to aclient computing device 102. As another example, a secondary storagedevice 108 may include an array of hard disk drives or solid statedrives organized in a RAID configuration, and media agent 144 mayforward a logical unit number (LUN) and other appropriate information tothe array, which uses the received information to execute the desiredsecondary copy operation. Media agent 144 may communicate with asecondary storage device 108 via a suitable communications link, such asa SCSI or Fiber Channel link.

Each media agent 144 may maintain an associated media agent database152. Media agent database 152 may be stored to a disk or other storagedevice (not shown) that is local to the secondary storage computingdevice 106 on which media agent 144 operates. In other cases, mediaagent database 152 is stored separately from the host secondary storagecomputing device 106. Media agent database 152 can include, among otherthings, a media agent index 153 (see, e.g., FIG. 1C). In some cases,media agent index 153 does not form a part of and is instead separatefrom media agent database 152.

Media agent index 153 (or “index 153”) may be a data structureassociated with the particular media agent 144 that includes informationabout the stored data associated with the particular media agent andwhich may be generated in the course of performing a secondary copyoperation or a restore. Index 153 provides a fast and efficientmechanism for locating/browsing secondary copies 116 or other datastored in secondary storage devices 108 without having to accesssecondary storage device 108 to retrieve the information from there. Forinstance, for each secondary copy 116, index 153 may include metadatasuch as a list of the data objects (e.g., files/subdirectories, databaseobjects, mailbox objects, etc.), a logical path to the secondary copy116 on the corresponding secondary storage device 108, locationinformation (e.g., offsets) indicating where the data objects are storedin the secondary storage device 108, when the data objects were createdor modified, etc. Thus, index 153 includes metadata associated with thesecondary copies 116 that is readily available for use from media agent144. In some embodiments, some or all of the information in index 153may instead or additionally be stored along with secondary copies 116 insecondary storage device 108. In some embodiments, a secondary storagedevice 108 can include sufficient information to enable a “bare metalrestore,” where the operating system and/or software applications of afailed client computing device 102 or another target may beautomatically restored without manually reinstalling individual softwarepackages (including operating systems).

Because index 153 may operate as a cache, it can also be referred to asan “index cache.” In such cases, information stored in index cache 153typically comprises data that reflects certain particulars aboutrelatively recent secondary copy operations. After some triggeringevent, such as after some time elapses or index cache 153 reaches aparticular size, certain portions of index cache 153 may be copied ormigrated to secondary storage device 108, e.g., on a least-recently-usedbasis. This information may be retrieved and uploaded back into indexcache 153 or otherwise restored to media agent 144 to facilitateretrieval of data from the secondary storage device(s) 108. In someembodiments, the cached information may include format orcontainerization information related to archives or other files storedon storage device(s) 108.

In some alternative embodiments media agent 144 generally acts as acoordinator or facilitator of secondary copy operations between clientcomputing devices 102 and secondary storage devices 108, but does notactually write the data to secondary storage device 108. For instance,storage manager 140 (or media agent 144) may instruct a client computingdevice 102 and secondary storage device 108 to communicate with oneanother directly. In such a case, client computing device 102 transmitsdata directly or via one or more intermediary components to secondarystorage device 108 according to the received instructions, and viceversa. Media agent 144 may still receive, process, and/or maintainmetadata related to the secondary copy operations, i.e., may continue tobuild and maintain index 153. In these embodiments, payload data canflow through media agent 144 for the purposes of populating index 153,but not for writing to secondary storage device 108.

Media agent 144 and/or other components such as storage manager 140 mayin some cases incorporate additional functionality, such as dataclassification, content indexing, deduplication, encryption,compression, and the like. Further details regarding these and otherfunctions are described below.

Distributed, Scalable Architecture

As described, certain functions of system 100 can be distributed amongstvarious physical and/or logical components. For instance, one or more ofstorage manager 140, data agents 142, and media agents 144 may operateon computing devices that are physically separate from one another. Thisarchitecture can provide a number of benefits. For instance, hardwareand software design choices for each distributed component can betargeted to suit its particular function. The secondary computingdevices 106 on which media agents 144 operate can be tailored forinteraction with associated secondary storage devices 108 and providefast index cache operation, among other specific tasks. Similarly,client computing device(s) 102 can be selected to effectively serviceapplications 110 in order to efficiently produce and store primary data112.

Moreover, in some cases, one or more of the individual components ofinformation management system 100 can be distributed to multipleseparate computing devices. As one example, for large file systems wherethe amount of data stored in management database 146 is relativelylarge, database 146 may be migrated to or may otherwise reside on aspecialized database server (e.g., an SQL server) separate from a serverthat implements the other functions of storage manager 140. Thisdistributed configuration can provide added protection because database146 can be protected with standard database utilities (e.g., SQL logshipping or database replication) independent from other functions ofstorage manager 140. Database 146 can be efficiently replicated to aremote site for use in the event of a disaster or other data loss at theprimary site. Or database 146 can be replicated to another computingdevice within the same site, such as to a higher performance machine inthe event that a storage manager host computing device can no longerservice the needs of a growing system 100.

The distributed architecture also provides scalability and efficientcomponent utilization. FIG. 1D shows an embodiment of informationmanagement system 100 including a plurality of client computing devices102 and associated data agents 142 as well as a plurality of secondarystorage computing devices 106 and associated media agents 144.Additional components can be added or subtracted based on the evolvingneeds of system 100. For instance, depending on where bottlenecks areidentified, administrators can add additional client computing devices102, secondary storage computing devices 106, and/or secondary storagedevices 108. Moreover, where multiple fungible components are available,load balancing can be implemented to dynamically address identifiedbottlenecks. As an example, storage manager 140 may dynamically selectwhich media agents 144 and/or secondary storage devices 108 to use forstorage operations based on a processing load analysis of media agents144 and/or secondary storage devices 108, respectively.

Where system 100 includes multiple media agents 144 (see, e.g., FIG.1D), a first media agent 144 may provide failover functionality for asecond failed media agent 144. In addition, media agents 144 can bedynamically selected to provide load balancing. Each client computingdevice 102 can communicate with, among other components, any of themedia agents 144, e.g., as directed by storage manager 140. And eachmedia agent 144 may communicate with, among other components, any ofsecondary storage devices 108, e.g., as directed by storage manager 140.Thus, operations can be routed to secondary storage devices 108 in adynamic and highly flexible manner, to provide load balancing, failover,etc. Further examples of scalable systems capable of dynamic storageoperations, load balancing, and failover are provided in U.S. Pat. No.7,246,207.

While distributing functionality amongst multiple computing devices canhave certain advantages, in other contexts it can be beneficial toconsolidate functionality on the same computing device. In alternativeconfigurations, certain components may reside and execute on the samecomputing device. As such, in other embodiments, one or more of thecomponents shown in FIG. 1C may be implemented on the same computingdevice. In one configuration, a storage manager 140, one or more dataagents 142, and/or one or more media agents 144 are all implemented onthe same computing device. In other embodiments, one or more data agents142 and one or more media agents 144 are implemented on the samecomputing device, while storage manager 140 is implemented on a separatecomputing device, etc. without limitation.

Exemplary Types of Information Management Operations

In order to protect and leverage stored data, system 100 can beconfigured to perform a variety of information management operations,which may also be referred to in some cases as storage managementoperations or storage operations. These operations can generally include(i) data movement operations, (ii) processing and data manipulationoperations, and (iii) analysis, reporting, and management operations.

Data Movement Operations, Including Secondary Copy Operations

Data movement operations are generally operations that involve thecopying or migration of data between different locations in system 100.For example, data movement operations can include operations in whichstored data is copied, migrated, or otherwise transferred from one ormore first storage devices to one or more second storage devices, suchas from primary storage device(s) 104 to secondary storage device(s)108, from secondary storage device(s) 108 to different secondary storagedevice(s) 108, from secondary storage devices 108 to primary storagedevices 104, or from primary storage device(s) 104 to different primarystorage device(s) 104, or in some cases within the same primary storagedevice 104 such as within a storage array.

Data movement operations can include by way of example, backupoperations, archive operations, information lifecycle managementoperations such as hierarchical storage management operations,replication operations (e.g., continuous data replication), snapshotoperations, deduplication or single-instancing operations, auxiliarycopy operations, disaster-recovery copy operations, and the like. Aswill be discussed, some of these operations do not necessarily createdistinct copies. Nonetheless, some or all of these operations aregenerally referred to as “secondary copy operations” for simplicity.Data movement also comprises restoring secondary copies.

Backup Operations

A backup operation creates a copy of a version of primary data 112 at aparticular point in time (e.g., one or more files or other data units).Each subsequent backup copy 116 (which is a form of secondary copy 116)may be maintained independently of the first. A backup generallyinvolves maintaining a version of the copied primary data 112 as well asbackup copies 116. Further, a backup copy in some embodiments isgenerally stored in a form that is different from the native format,e.g., a backup format. This contrasts to the version in primary data 112which may instead be stored in a native format of the sourceapplication(s) 110. In various cases, backup copies can be stored in aformat in which the data is compressed, encrypted, deduplicated, and/orotherwise modified from the original native application format. Forexample, a backup copy may be stored in a compressed backup format thatfacilitates efficient long-term storage.

Backup copies 116 can have relatively long retention periods as comparedto primary data 112, which is generally highly changeable. Backup copies116 may be stored on media with slower retrieval times than primarystorage device 104. Some backup copies may have shorter retentionperiods than some other types of secondary copies 116, such as archivecopies (described below). Backups may be stored at an offsite location.

Backup operations can include full backups, differential backups,incremental backups, “synthetic full” backups, and/or creating a“reference copy.” A full backup (or “standard full backup”) in someembodiments is generally a complete image of the data to be protected.However, because full backup copies can consume a relatively largeamount of storage, it can be useful to use a full backup copy as abaseline and only store changes relative to the full backup copy forsubsequent backup copies.

A differential backup operation (or cumulative incremental backupoperation) tracks and stores changes that occurred since the last fullbackup. Differential backups can grow quickly in size, but can restorerelatively efficiently because a restore can be completed in some casesusing only the full backup copy and the latest differential copy.

An incremental backup operation generally tracks and stores changessince the most recent backup copy of any type, which can greatly reducestorage utilization. In some cases, however, restoring can be lengthycompared to full or differential backups because completing a restoreoperation may involve accessing a full backup in addition to multipleincremental backups.

Synthetic full backups generally consolidate data without directlybacking up data from the client computing device. A synthetic fullbackup is created from the most recent full backup (i.e., standard orsynthetic) and subsequent incremental and/or differential backups. Theresulting synthetic full backup is identical to what would have beencreated had the last backup for the subclient been a standard fullbackup. Unlike standard full, incremental, and differential backups,however, a synthetic full backup does not actually transfer data fromprimary storage to the backup media, because it operates as a backupconsolidator. A synthetic full backup extracts the index data of eachparticipating subclient. Using this index data and the previously backedup user data images, it builds new full backup images (e.g., bitmaps),one for each subclient. The new backup images consolidate the index anduser data stored in the related incremental, differential, and previousfull backups into a synthetic backup file that fully represents thesubclient (e.g., via pointers) but does not comprise all its constituentdata.

Any of the above types of backup operations can be at the volume level,file level, or block level. Volume level backup operations generallyinvolve copying of a data volume (e.g., a logical disk or partition) asa whole. In a file-level backup, information management system 100generally tracks changes to individual files and includes copies offiles in the backup copy. For block-level backups, files are broken intoconstituent blocks, and changes are tracked at the block level. Uponrestore, system 100 reassembles the blocks into files in a transparentfashion. Far less data may actually be transferred and copied tosecondary storage devices 108 during a file-level copy than avolume-level copy. Likewise, a block-level copy may transfer less datathan a file-level copy, resulting in faster execution. However,restoring a relatively higher-granularity copy can result in longerrestore times. For instance, when restoring a block-level copy, theprocess of locating constituent blocks can sometimes take longer thanrestoring file-level backups.

A reference copy may comprise copy(ies) of selected objects from backedup data, typically to help organize data by keeping contextualinformation from multiple sources together, and/or help retain specificdata for a longer period of time, such as for legal hold needs. Areference copy generally maintains data integrity, and when the data isrestored, it may be viewed in the same format as the source data. Insome embodiments, a reference copy is based on a specialized client,individual subclient and associated information management policies(e.g., storage policy, retention policy, etc.) that are administeredwithin system 100.

Archive Operations

Because backup operations generally involve maintaining a version of thecopied primary data 112 and also maintaining backup copies in secondarystorage device(s) 108, they can consume significant storage capacity. Toreduce storage consumption, an archive operation according to certainembodiments creates an archive copy 116 by both copying and removingsource data. Or, seen another way, archive operations can involve movingsome or all of the source data to the archive destination. Thus, datasatisfying criteria for removal (e.g., data of a threshold age or size)may be removed from source storage. The source data may be primary data112 or a secondary copy 116, depending on the situation. As with backupcopies, archive copies can be stored in a format in which the data iscompressed, encrypted, deduplicated, and/or otherwise modified from theformat of the original application or source copy. In addition, archivecopies may be retained for relatively long periods of time (e.g., years)and, in some cases are never deleted. Archive copies are generallyretained for longer periods of time than backup copies. In certainembodiments, archive copies may be made and kept for extended periods inorder to meet compliance regulations.

Archiving can also serve the purpose of freeing up space in primarystorage device(s) 104 and easing the demand on computational resourceson client computing device 102. Similarly, when a secondary copy 116 isarchived, the archive copy can therefore serve the purpose of freeing upspace in the source secondary storage device(s) 108. Examples of dataarchiving operations are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 7,107,298.

Snapshot Operations

Snapshot operations can provide a relatively lightweight, efficientmechanism for protecting data. From an end-user viewpoint, a snapshotmay be thought of as an “instant” image of primary data 112 at a givenpoint in time, and may include state and/or status information relativeto an application 110 that creates/manages primary data 112. In oneembodiment, a snapshot may generally capture the directory structure ofan object in primary data 112 such as a file or volume or other data setat a particular moment in time and may also preserve file attributes andcontents. A snapshot in some cases is created relatively quickly, e.g.,substantially instantly, using a minimum amount of file space, but maystill function as a conventional file system backup.

A “hardware snapshot” (or “hardware-based snapshot”) operation can be asnapshot operation where a target storage device (e.g., a primarystorage device 104 or a secondary storage device 108) performs thesnapshot operation in a self-contained fashion, substantiallyindependently, using hardware, firmware and/or software operating on thestorage device itself. For instance, the storage device may performsnapshot operations generally without intervention or oversight from anyof the other components of the system 100, e.g., a storage array maygenerate an “array-created” hardware snapshot and may also manage itsstorage, integrity, versioning, etc. In this manner, hardware snapshotscan off-load other components of system 100 from processing involved increating and managing snapshots.

A “software snapshot” (or “software-based snapshot”) operation, on theother hand, can be a snapshot operation in which one or more othercomponents in information management system 100 (e.g., client computingdevices 102, data agents 142, etc.) implement a software layer thatmanages the snapshot operation via interaction with the target storagedevice. For instance, the component executing the snapshot managementsoftware layer may derive a set of pointers and/or data that representsthe snapshot. The snapshot management software layer may then transmitthe same to the target storage device, along with appropriateinstructions for writing the snapshot. One example of a softwaresnapshot product may be Microsoft Volume Snapshot Service (VSS), whichis part of the Microsoft Windows operating system.

Some types of snapshots do not actually create another physical copy ofall the data as it existed at the particular point in time, but maysimply create pointers that are able to map files and directories tospecific memory locations (e.g., to specific disk blocks) where the dataresides, as it existed at the particular point in time. For example, asnapshot copy may include a set of pointers derived from the file systemor from an application. In some other cases, the snapshot may be createdat the block-level, such that creation of the snapshot occurs withoutawareness of the file system. Each pointer points to a respective storeddata block, so that collectively, the set of pointers reflect thestorage location and state of the data object (e.g., file(s) orvolume(s) or data set(s)) at the particular point in time when thesnapshot copy was created.

An initial snapshot may use only a small amount of disk space needed torecord a mapping or other data structure representing or otherwisetracking the blocks that correspond to the current state of the filesystem. Additional disk space is usually required only when files anddirectories change later on. Furthermore, when files change, typicallyonly the pointers which map to blocks are copied, not the blocksthemselves. For example for “copy-on-write” snapshots, when a blockchanges in primary storage, the block is copied to secondary storage orcached in primary storage before the block is overwritten in primarystorage, and the pointer to that block is changed to reflect the newlocation of that block. The snapshot mapping of file system data mayalso be updated to reflect the changed block(s) at that particular pointin time. In some other cases, a snapshot includes a full physical copyof all or substantially all of the data represented by the snapshot.Further examples of snapshot operations are provided in U.S. Pat. No.7,529,782.

A snapshot copy in many cases can be made quickly and withoutsignificantly impacting primary computing resources because largeamounts of data need not be copied or moved. In some embodiments, asnapshot may exist as a virtual file system, parallel to the actual filesystem. Users in some cases gain read-only access to the record of filesand directories of the snapshot. By electing to restore primary data 112from a snapshot taken at a given point in time, users may also returnthe current file system to the state of the file system that existedwhen the snapshot was taken.

Replication Operations

Another type of secondary copy operation is a replication operation.Some types of secondary copies 116 are used to periodically captureimages of primary data 112 at particular points in time (e.g., backups,archives, and snapshots). However, it can also be useful for recoverypurposes to protect primary data 112 in a more continuous fashion, byreplicating primary data 112 substantially as changes occur. In somecases a replication copy can be a mirror copy, for instance, wherechanges made to primary data 112 are mirrored or substantiallyimmediately copied to another location (e.g., to secondary storagedevice(s) 108). By copying each write operation to the replication copy,two storage systems are kept synchronized or substantially synchronizedso that they are virtually identical at approximately the same time.Where entire disk volumes are mirrored, however, mirroring can requiresignificant amount of storage space and utilizes a large amount ofprocessing resources.

According to some embodiments secondary copy operations are performed onreplicated data that represents a recoverable state, or “known goodstate” of a particular application running on the source system. Forinstance, in certain embodiments, known good replication copies may beviewed as copies of primary data 112. This feature allows the system todirectly access, copy, restore, backup or otherwise manipulate thereplication copies as if the data were the “live” primary data 112. Thiscan reduce access time, storage utilization, and impact on sourceapplications 110, among other benefits. Based on known good stateinformation, system 100 can replicate sections of application data thatrepresent a recoverable state rather than rote copying of blocks ofdata. Examples of replication operations (e.g., continuous datareplication) are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 7,617,262.

Deduplication/Single-Instancing Operations

Deduplication or single-instance storage is useful to reduce the amountof non-primary data. For instance, some or all of the above-describedsecondary copy operations can involve deduplication in some fashion. Newdata is read, broken down into data portions of a selected granularity(e.g., sub-file level blocks, files, etc.), compared with correspondingportions that are already in secondary storage, and only new portionsare stored. Portions that already exist are represented as pointers tothe already-stored data. Thus, a deduplicated secondary copy 116 maycomprise actual data portions copied from primary data 112 and mayfurther comprise pointers to already-stored data, which is generallymore storage-efficient than a full copy.

In order to streamline the comparison process, information managementsystem 100 may calculate and/or store signatures (e.g., hashes orcryptographically unique IDs) corresponding to the individual dataportions in the source data and compare the signatures instead ofcomparing entire data portions. In some cases, only a single instance ofeach data portion is stored, and deduplication operations may thereforebe referred to interchangeably as “single-instancing” operations.Depending on the implementation, however, deduplication operations canstore more than one instance of certain data portions, but nonethelesssignificantly reduce stored-data redundancy. Depending on theembodiment, deduplication portions such as data blocks can be of fixedor variable length. Using variable length blocks can enhancededuplication by responding to changes in the data stream, but caninvolve complex processing. In some cases, system 100 utilizes atechnique for dynamically aligning deduplication blocks based onchanging content in the data stream, as described in U.S. Pat. No.8,364,652.

Information management system 100 can perform deduplication in a varietyof manners at a variety of locations. For instance, in some embodiments,system 100 implements “target-side” deduplication by deduplicating dataat the media agent 144 after being received from data agent 142. In somesuch cases, the media agents 144 are generally configured to manage thededuplication process. For instance, one or more of the media agents 144maintain a corresponding deduplication database that storesdeduplication information (e.g., datablock signatures). Examples of sucha configuration are provided in U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2012/0150826. Insteadof or in combination with “target-side” deduplication, deduplication canalso be performed on the “source-side” (or “client-side”), e.g., toreduce the amount of data to be transmitted by data agent 142 to mediaagent 144. Storage manager 140 may communicate with other componentswithin system 100 via network protocols and cloud service provider APIsto facilitate cloud-based deduplication/single instancing, asexemplified in U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2012/0150818. Some otherdeduplication/single instancing techniques are described in U.S. Pat.Pub. Nos. 2006/0224846 and 2009/0319534.

Information Lifecycle Management and Hierarchical Storage Management

In some embodiments, files and other data over their lifetime move frommore expensive quick-access storage to less expensive slower-accessstorage. Operations associated with moving data through various tiers ofstorage are sometimes referred to as information lifecycle management(ILM) operations.

One type of ILM operation is a hierarchical storage management (HSM)operation, which generally automatically moves data between classes ofstorage devices, such as from high-cost to low-cost storage devices. Forinstance, an HSM operation may involve movement of data from primarystorage devices 104 to secondary storage devices 108, or between tiersof secondary storage devices 108. With each tier, the storage devicesmay be progressively cheaper, have relatively slower access/restoretimes, etc. For example, movement of data between tiers may occur asdata becomes less important over time. In some embodiments, an HSMoperation is similar to archiving in that creating an HSM copy may(though not always) involve deleting some of the source data, e.g.,according to one or more criteria related to the source data. Forexample, an HSM copy may include primary data 112 or a secondary copy116 that is larger than a given size threshold or older than a given agethreshold. Often, and unlike some types of archive copies, HSM data thatis removed or aged from the source is replaced by a logical referencepointer or stub. The reference pointer or stub can be stored in theprimary storage device 104 or other source storage device, such as asecondary storage device 108 to replace the deleted source data and topoint to or otherwise indicate the new location in (another) secondarystorage device 108.

According to one example, files are generally moved between higher andlower cost storage depending on how often the files are accessed. When auser requests access to HSM data that has been removed or migrated,system 100 uses the stub to locate the data and may make recovery of thedata appear transparent, even though the HSM data may be stored at alocation different from other source data. In this manner, the dataappears to the user (e.g., in file system browsing windows and the like)as if it still resides in the source location (e.g., in a primarystorage device 104). The stub may also include some metadata associatedwith the corresponding data, so that a file system and/or applicationcan provide some information about the data object and/or alimited-functionality version (e.g., a preview) of the data object.

An HSM copy may be stored in a format other than the native applicationformat (e.g., compressed, encrypted, deduplicated, and/or otherwisemodified). In some cases, copies which involve the removal of data fromsource storage and the maintenance of stub or other logical referenceinformation on source storage may be referred to generally as “on-linearchive copies”. On the other hand, copies which involve the removal ofdata from source storage without the maintenance of stub or otherlogical reference information on source storage may be referred to as“off-line archive copies”. Examples of HSM and ILM techniques areprovided in U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453.

Auxiliary Copy Operations

An auxiliary copy is generally a copy of an existing secondary copy 116.For instance, an initial secondary copy 116 may be derived from primarydata 112 or from data residing in secondary storage subsystem 118,whereas an auxiliary copy is generated from the initial secondary copy116. Auxiliary copies provide additional standby copies of data and mayreside on different secondary storage devices 108 than the initialsecondary copies 116. Thus, auxiliary copies can be used for recoverypurposes if initial secondary copies 116 become unavailable. Exemplaryauxiliary copy techniques are described in further detail in U.S. Pat.No. 8,230,195.

Disaster-Recovery Copy Operations

Information management system 100 may also make and retain disasterrecovery copies, often as secondary, high-availability disk copies.System 100 may create secondary disk copies and store the copies atdisaster recovery locations using auxiliary copy or replicationoperations, such as continuous data replication technologies. Dependingon the particular data protection goals, disaster recovery locations canbe remote from the client computing devices 102 and primary storagedevices 104, remote from some or all of the secondary storage devices108, or both.

Data Manipulation, Including Encryption and Compression

Data manipulation and processing may include encryption and compressionas well as integrity marking and checking, formatting for transmission,formatting for storage, etc. Data may be manipulated “client-side” bydata agent 142 as well as “target-side” by media agent 144 in the courseof creating secondary copy 116.

Encryption Operations

Information management system 100 in some cases is configured to processdata (e.g., files or other data objects, primary data 112, secondarycopies 116, etc.), according to an appropriate encryption algorithm(e.g., Blowfish, Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), Triple DataEncryption Standard (3-DES), etc.) to limit access and provide datasecurity. System 100 in some cases encrypts the data at the clientlevel, such that client computing devices 102 (e.g., data agents 142)encrypt the data prior to transferring it to other components, e.g.,before sending the data to media agents 144 during a secondary copyoperation. In such cases, client computing device 102 may maintain orhave access to an encryption key or passphrase for decrypting the dataupon restore. Encryption can also occur when media agent 144 createsauxiliary copies or archive copies. Encryption may be applied increating a secondary copy 116 of a previously unencrypted secondary copy116, without limitation. In further embodiments, secondary storagedevices 108 can implement built-in, high performance hardware-basedencryption.

Compression Operations

Similar to encryption, system 100 may also or alternatively compressdata in the course of generating a secondary copy 116. Compressionencodes information such that fewer bits are needed to represent theinformation as compared to the original representation. Compressiontechniques are well known in the art. Compression operations may applyone or more data compression algorithms. Compression may be applied increating a secondary copy 116 of a previously uncompressed secondarycopy, e.g., when making archive copies or disaster recovery copies. Theuse of compression may result in metadata that specifies the nature ofthe compression, so that data may be uncompressed on restore ifappropriate.

Data Analysis, Reporting, and Management Operations

Data analysis, reporting, and management operations can differ from datamovement operations in that they do not necessarily involve copying,migration or other transfer of data between different locations in thesystem. For instance, data analysis operations may involve processing(e.g., offline processing) or modification of already stored primarydata 112 and/or secondary copies 116. However, in some embodiments dataanalysis operations are performed in conjunction with data movementoperations. Some data analysis operations include content indexingoperations and classification operations which can be useful inleveraging the data under management to provide enhanced search andother features. Other data analysis operations such as compression andencryption can provide data reduction and security benefits,respectively.

Classification Operations/Content Indexing

In some embodiments, information management system 100 analyzes andindexes characteristics, content, and metadata associated with primarydata 112 (“online content indexing”) and/or secondary copies 116(“off-line content indexing”). Content indexing can identify files orother data objects based on content (e.g., user-defined keywords orphrases, other keywords/phrases that are not defined by a user, etc.),and/or metadata (e.g., email metadata such as “to”, “from,” “cc,” “bcc,”attachment name, received time, etc.). Content indexes may be searchedand search results may be restored.

Information management system 100 generally organizes and catalogues theresults into a content index, which may be stored within media agentdatabase 152, for example. The content index can also include thestorage locations of or pointer references to indexed data in primarydata 112 or secondary copies 116, as appropriate. The results may alsobe stored elsewhere in system 100 (e.g., in primary storage device 104or in secondary storage device 108). Such content index data providesstorage manager 140 or other components with an efficient mechanism forlocating primary data 112 and/or secondary copies 116 of data objectsthat match particular criteria, thus greatly increasing the search speedcapability of system 100. For instance, search criteria can be specifiedby a user through user interface 158 of storage manager 140. Moreover,when system 100 analyzes data and/or metadata in secondary copies 116 tocreate an “off-line content index,” this operation has no significantimpact on the performance of client computing devices 102 and thus doesnot take a toll on the production environment. Examples of contentindexing techniques are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 8,170,995.

One or more components, such as a content index engine, can beconfigured to scan data and/or associated metadata for classificationpurposes to populate a database (or other data structure) ofinformation, which can be referred to as a “data classificationdatabase” or a “metabase.” Depending on the embodiment, the dataclassification database(s) can be organized in a variety of differentways, including centralization, logical sub-divisions, and/or physicalsub-divisions. For instance, one or more data classification databasesmay be associated with different subsystems or tiers within system 100.As an example, there may be a first metabase associated with primarystorage subsystem 117 and a second metabase associated with secondarystorage subsystem 118. In other cases, there may be one or moremetabases associated with individual components, e.g., client computingdevices 102 and/or media agents 144. In some embodiments, a dataclassification database may reside as one or more data structures withinmanagement database 146, or may be otherwise associated with storagemanager 140 or may reside as a separate component.

In some cases, metabase(s) may be included in separate database(s)and/or on separate storage device(s) from primary data 112 and/orsecondary copies 116, such that operations related to the metabase(s) donot significantly impact performance on other components of informationmanagement system 100. In other cases, metabase(s) may be stored alongwith primary data 112 and/or secondary copies 116. Files or other dataobjects can be associated with identifiers (e.g., tag entries, etc.) tofacilitate searches of stored data objects. Among a number of otherbenefits, the metabase can also allow efficient, automaticidentification of files or other data objects to associate withsecondary copy or other information management operations. For instance,a metabase can dramatically improve the speed with which the informationmanagement system can search through and identify data as compared toother approaches which can involve scanning an entire file system.Examples of metabases and data classification operations are provided inU.S. Pat. Nos. 7,734,669 and 7,747,579.

Management and Reporting Operations

Certain embodiments leverage the integrated ubiquitous nature ofinformation management system 100 to provide useful system-widemanagement and reporting functions. Operations management can generallyinclude monitoring and managing the health and performance of system 100by, without limitation, performing error tracking, generating granularstorage/performance metrics (e.g., job success/failure information,deduplication efficiency, etc.), generating storage modeling and costinginformation, and the like. As an example, storage manager 140 or othercomponent in system 100 may analyze traffic patterns and suggest and/orautomatically route data to minimize congestion. In some embodiments,the system can generate predictions relating to storage operations orstorage operation information. Such predictions, which may be based on atrending analysis, may predict various network operations or resourceusage, such as network traffic levels, storage media use, use ofbandwidth of communication links, use of media agent components, etc.Further examples of traffic analysis, trend analysis, predictiongeneration, and the like are described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453.

In some configurations having a hierarchy of storage operation cells, amaster storage manager 140 may track the status of subordinate cells,such as the status of jobs, system components, system resources, andother items, by communicating with storage managers 140 (or othercomponents) in the respective storage operation cells. Moreover, themaster storage manager 140 may also track status by receiving periodicstatus updates from the storage managers 140 (or other components) inthe respective cells regarding jobs, system components, systemresources, and other items. In some embodiments, a master storagemanager 140 may store status information and other information regardingits associated storage operation cells and other system information inits management database 146 and/or index 150 (or in another location).The master storage manager 140 or other component may also determinewhether certain storage-related or other criteria are satisfied, and mayperform an action or trigger event (e.g., data migration) in response tothe criteria being satisfied, such as where a storage threshold is metfor a particular volume, or where inadequate protection exists forcertain data. For instance, data from one or more storage operationcells is used to dynamically and automatically mitigate recognizedrisks, and/or to advise users of risks or suggest actions to mitigatethese risks. For example, an information management policy may specifycertain requirements (e.g., that a storage device should maintain acertain amount of free space, that secondary copies should occur at aparticular interval, that data should be aged and migrated to otherstorage after a particular period, that data on a secondary volumeshould always have a certain level of availability and be restorablewithin a given time period, that data on a secondary volume may bemirrored or otherwise migrated to a specified number of other volumes,etc.). If a risk condition or other criterion is triggered, the systemmay notify the user of these conditions and may suggest (orautomatically implement) a mitigation action to address the risk. Forexample, the system may indicate that data from a primary copy 112should be migrated to a secondary storage device 108 to free space onprimary storage device 104. Examples of the use of risk factors andother triggering criteria are described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453.

In some embodiments, system 100 may also determine whether a metric orother indication satisfies particular storage criteria sufficient toperform an action. For example, a storage policy or other definitionmight indicate that a storage manager 140 should initiate a particularaction if a storage metric or other indication drops below or otherwisefails to satisfy specified criteria such as a threshold of dataprotection. In some embodiments, risk factors may be quantified intocertain measurable service or risk levels. For example, certainapplications and associated data may be considered to be more importantrelative to other data and services. Financial compliance data, forexample, may be of greater importance than marketing materials, etc.Network administrators may assign priority values or “weights” tocertain data and/or applications corresponding to the relativeimportance. The level of compliance of secondary copy operationsspecified for these applications may also be assigned a certain value.Thus, the health, impact, and overall importance of a service may bedetermined, such as by measuring the compliance value and calculatingthe product of the priority value and the compliance value to determinethe “service level” and comparing it to certain operational thresholdsto determine whether it is acceptable. Further examples of the servicelevel determination are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453, which isincorporated by reference herein.

System 100 may additionally calculate data costing and data availabilityassociated with information management operation cells. For instance,data received from a cell may be used in conjunction withhardware-related information and other information about system elementsto determine the cost of storage and/or the availability of particulardata. Exemplary information generated could include how fast aparticular department is using up available storage space, how long datawould take to recover over a particular pathway from a particularsecondary storage device, costs over time, etc. Moreover, in someembodiments, such information may be used to determine or predict theoverall cost associated with the storage of certain information. Thecost associated with hosting a certain application may be based, atleast in part, on the type of media on which the data resides, forexample. Storage devices may be assigned to a particular costcategories, for example. Further examples of costing techniques aredescribed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453.

Any of the above types of information (e.g., information related totrending, predictions, job, cell or component status, risk, servicelevel, costing, etc.) can generally be provided to users via userinterface 158 in a single integrated view or console (not shown). Reporttypes may include: scheduling, event management, media management anddata aging. Available reports may also include backup history, dataaging history, auxiliary copy history, job history, library and drive,media in library, restore history, and storage policy, etc., withoutlimitation. Such reports may be specified and created at a certain pointin time as a system analysis, forecasting, or provisioning tool.Integrated reports may also be generated that illustrate storage andperformance metrics, risks and storage costing information. Moreover,users may create their own reports based on specific needs. Userinterface 158 can include an option to show a “virtual view” of thesystem that graphically depicts the various components in the systemusing appropriate icons. As one example, user interface 158 may providea graphical depiction of primary storage devices 104, secondary storagedevices 108, data agents 142 and/or media agents 144, and theirrelationship to one another in system 100.

In general, the operations management functionality of system 100 canfacilitate planning and decision-making. For example, in someembodiments, a user may view the status of some or all jobs as well asthe status of each component of information management system 100. Usersmay then plan and make decisions based on this data. For instance, auser may view high-level information regarding secondary copy operationsfor system 100, such as job status, component status, resource status(e.g., communication pathways, etc.), and other information. The usermay also drill down or use other means to obtain more detailedinformation regarding a particular component, job, or the like. Furtherexamples are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453.

Information management system 100 can also be configured to performsystem-wide e-discovery operations in some embodiments. In general,e-discovery operations provide a unified collection and searchcapability for data in the system, such as data stored in secondarystorage devices 108 (e.g., backups, archives, or other secondary copies116). For example, system 100 may construct and maintain a virtualrepository for data stored in system 100 that is integrated acrosssource applications 110, different storage device types, etc. Accordingto some embodiments, e-discovery utilizes other techniques describedherein, such as data classification and/or content indexing.

Information Management Policies

An information management policy 148 can include a data structure orother information source that specifies a set of parameters (e.g.,criteria and rules) associated with secondary copy and/or otherinformation management operations.

One type of information management policy 148 is a “storage policy.”According to certain embodiments, a storage policy generally comprises adata structure or other information source that defines (or includesinformation sufficient to determine) a set of preferences or othercriteria for performing information management operations. Storagepolicies can include one or more of the following: (1) what data will beassociated with the storage policy, e.g., subclient; (2) a destinationto which the data will be stored; (3) datapath information specifyinghow the data will be communicated to the destination; (4) the type ofsecondary copy operation to be performed; and (5) retention informationspecifying how long the data will be retained at the destination (see,e.g., FIG. 1E). Data associated with a storage policy can be logicallyorganized into subclients, which may represent primary data 112 and/orsecondary copies 116. A subclient may represent static or dynamicassociations of portions of a data volume. Subclients may representmutually exclusive portions. Thus, in certain embodiments, a portion ofdata may be given a label and the association is stored as a staticentity in an index, database or other storage location. Subclients mayalso be used as an effective administrative scheme of organizing dataaccording to data type, department within the enterprise, storagepreferences, or the like. Depending on the configuration, subclients cancorrespond to files, folders, virtual machines, databases, etc. In oneexemplary scenario, an administrator may find it preferable to separatee-mail data from financial data using two different subclients.

A storage policy can define where data is stored by specifying a targetor destination storage device (or group of storage devices). Forinstance, where the secondary storage device 108 includes a group ofdisk libraries, the storage policy may specify a particular disk libraryfor storing the subclients associated with the policy. As anotherexample, where the secondary storage devices 108 include one or moretape libraries, the storage policy may specify a particular tape libraryfor storing the subclients associated with the storage policy, and mayalso specify a drive pool and a tape pool defining a group of tapedrives and a group of tapes, respectively, for use in storing thesubclient data. While information in the storage policy can bestatically assigned in some cases, some or all of the information in thestorage policy can also be dynamically determined based on criteria,which can be set forth in the storage policy. For instance, based onsuch criteria, a particular destination storage device(s) or otherparameter of the storage policy may be determined based oncharacteristics associated with the data involved in a particularsecondary copy operation, device availability (e.g., availability of asecondary storage device 108 or a media agent 144), network status andconditions (e.g., identified bottlenecks), user credentials, and thelike.

Datapath information can also be included in the storage policy. Forinstance, the storage policy may specify network pathways and componentsto utilize when moving the data to the destination storage device(s). Insome embodiments, the storage policy specifies one or more media agents144 for conveying data associated with the storage policy between thesource and destination. A storage policy can also specify the type(s) ofoperations associated with the storage policy, such as a backup,archive, snapshot, auxiliary copy, or the like. Furthermore, retentionparameters can specify how long the resulting secondary copies 116 willbe kept (e.g., a number of days, months, years, etc.), perhaps dependingon organizational needs and/or compliance criteria.

Another type of information management policy 148 is a “schedulingpolicy,” which specifies when and how often to perform operations.Scheduling parameters may specify with what frequency (e.g., hourly,weekly, daily, event-based, etc.) or under what triggering conditionssecondary copy or other information management operations are to takeplace. Scheduling policies in some cases are associated with particularcomponents, such as a subclient, client computing device 102, and thelike.

When adding a new client computing device 102, administrators canmanually configure information management policies 148 and/or othersettings, e.g., via user interface 158. However, this can be an involvedprocess resulting in delays, and it may be desirable to begin dataprotection operations quickly, without awaiting human intervention.Thus, in some embodiments, system 100 automatically applies a defaultconfiguration to client computing device 102. As one example, when oneor more data agent(s) 142 are installed on a client computing device102, the installation script may register the client computing device102 with storage manager 140, which in turn applies the defaultconfiguration to the new client computing device 102. In this manner,data protection operations can begin substantially immediately. Thedefault configuration can include a default storage policy, for example,and can specify any appropriate information sufficient to begin dataprotection operations. This can include a type of data protectionoperation, scheduling information, a target secondary storage device108, data path information (e.g., a particular media agent 144), and thelike.

Another type of information management policy 148 is an “audit policy”(or security policy), which comprises preferences, rules and/or criteriathat protect sensitive data in information management system 100. Forexample, an audit policy may define “sensitive objects” which are filesor data objects that contain particular keywords (e.g., “confidential,”or “privileged”) and/or are associated with particular keywords (e.g.,in metadata) or particular flags (e.g., in metadata identifying adocument or email as personal, confidential, etc.). An audit policy mayfurther specify rules for handling sensitive objects. As an example, anaudit policy may require that a reviewer approve the transfer of anysensitive objects to a cloud storage site, and that if approval isdenied for a particular sensitive object, the sensitive object should betransferred to a local primary storage device 104 instead. To facilitatethis approval, the audit policy may further specify how a secondarystorage computing device 106 or other system component should notify areviewer that a sensitive object is slated for transfer.

Another type of information management policy 148 is a “provisioningpolicy,” which can include preferences, priorities, rules, and/orcriteria that specify how client computing devices 102 (or groupsthereof) may utilize system resources, such as available storage oncloud storage and/or network bandwidth. A provisioning policy specifies,for example, data quotas for particular client computing devices 102(e.g., a number of gigabytes that can be stored monthly, quarterly orannually). Storage manager 140 or other components may enforce theprovisioning policy. For instance, media agents 144 may enforce thepolicy when transferring data to secondary storage devices 108. If aclient computing device 102 exceeds a quota, a budget for the clientcomputing device 102 (or associated department) may be adjustedaccordingly or an alert may trigger.

While the above types of information management policies 148 have beendescribed as separate policies, one or more of these can be generallycombined into a single information management policy 148. For instance,a storage policy may also include or otherwise be associated with one ormore scheduling, audit, or provisioning policies or operationalparameters thereof. Moreover, while storage policies are typicallyassociated with moving and storing data, other policies may beassociated with other types of information management operations. Thefollowing is a non-exhaustive list of items that information managementpolicies 148 may specify:

-   -   schedules or other timing information, e.g., specifying when        and/or how often to perform information management operations;    -   the type of secondary copy 116 and/or copy format (e.g.,        snapshot, backup, archive, HSM, etc.);    -   a location or a class or quality of storage for storing        secondary copies 116 (e.g., one or more particular secondary        storage devices 108);    -   preferences regarding whether and how to encrypt, compress,        deduplicate, or otherwise modify or transform secondary copies        116;    -   which system components and/or network pathways (e.g., preferred        media agents 144) should be used to perform secondary storage        operations;    -   resource allocation among different computing devices or other        system components used in performing information management        operations (e.g., bandwidth allocation, available storage        capacity, etc.);    -   whether and how to synchronize or otherwise distribute files or        other data objects across multiple computing devices or hosted        services; and    -   retention information specifying the length of time primary data        112 and/or secondary copies 116 should be retained, e.g., in a        particular class or tier of storage devices, or within the        system 100.

Information management policies 148 can additionally specify or dependon historical or current criteria that may be used to determine whichrules to apply to a particular data object, system component, orinformation management operation, such as:

-   -   frequency with which primary data 112 or a secondary copy 116 of        a data object or metadata has been or is predicted to be used,        accessed, or modified;    -   time-related factors (e.g., aging information such as time since        the creation or modification of a data object);    -   deduplication information (e.g., hashes, data blocks,        deduplication block size, deduplication efficiency or other        metrics);    -   an estimated or historic usage or cost associated with different        components (e.g., with secondary storage devices 108);    -   the identity of users, applications 110, client computing        devices 102 and/or other computing devices that created,        accessed, modified, or otherwise utilized primary data 112 or        secondary copies 116;    -   a relative sensitivity (e.g., confidentiality, importance) of a        data object, e.g., as determined by its content and/or metadata;    -   the current or historical storage capacity of various storage        devices;    -   the current or historical network capacity of network pathways        connecting various components within the storage operation cell;    -   access control lists or other security information; and    -   the content of a particular data object (e.g., its textual        content) or of metadata associated with the data object.

Exemplary Storage Policy and Secondary Copy Operations

FIG. 1E includes a data flow diagram depicting performance of secondarycopy operations by an embodiment of information management system 100,according to an exemplary storage policy 148A. System 100 includes astorage manager 140, a client computing device 102 having a file systemdata agent 142A and an email data agent 142B operating thereon, aprimary storage device 104, two media agents 144A, 144B, and twosecondary storage devices 108: a disk library 108A and a tape library108B. As shown, primary storage device 104 includes primary data 112A,which is associated with a logical grouping of data associated with afile system (“file system subclient”), and primary data 1128, which is alogical grouping of data associated with email (“email subclient”). Thetechniques described with respect to FIG. 1E can be utilized inconjunction with data that is otherwise organized as well.

As indicated by the dashed box, the second media agent 144B and tapelibrary 108B are “off-site,” and may be remotely located from the othercomponents in system 100 (e.g., in a different city, office building,etc.). Indeed, “off-site” may refer to a magnetic tape located in remotestorage, which must be manually retrieved and loaded into a tape driveto be read. In this manner, information stored on the tape library 108Bmay provide protection in the event of a disaster or other failure atthe main site(s) where data is stored.

The file system subclient 112A in certain embodiments generallycomprises information generated by the file system and/or operatingsystem of client computing device 102, and can include, for example,file system data (e.g., regular files, file tables, mount points, etc.),operating system data (e.g., registries, event logs, etc.), and thelike. The e-mail subclient 112B can include data generated by an e-mailapplication operating on client computing device 102, e.g., mailboxinformation, folder information, emails, attachments, associateddatabase information, and the like. As described above, the subclientscan be logical containers, and the data included in the correspondingprimary data 112A and 112B may or may not be stored contiguously.

The exemplary storage policy 148A includes backup copy preferences (orrule set) 160, disaster recovery copy preferences or rule set 162, andcompliance copy preferences or rule set 164. Backup copy rule set 160specifies that it is associated with file system subclient 166 and emailsubclient 168. Each of subclients 166 and 168 are associated with theparticular client computing device 102. Backup copy rule set 160 furtherspecifies that the backup operation will be written to disk library 108Aand designates a particular media agent 144A to convey the data to disklibrary 108A. Finally, backup copy rule set 160 specifies that backupcopies created according to rule set 160 are scheduled to be generatedhourly and are to be retained for 30 days. In some other embodiments,scheduling information is not included in storage policy 148A and isinstead specified by a separate scheduling policy.

Disaster recovery copy rule set 162 is associated with the same twosubclients 166 and 168. However, disaster recovery copy rule set 162 isassociated with tape library 108B, unlike backup copy rule set 160.Moreover, disaster recovery copy rule set 162 specifies that a differentmedia agent, namely 144B, will convey data to tape library 108B.Disaster recovery copies created according to rule set 162 will beretained for 60 days and will be generated daily. Disaster recoverycopies generated according to disaster recovery copy rule set 162 canprovide protection in the event of a disaster or other catastrophic dataloss that would affect the backup copy 116A maintained on disk library108A.

Compliance copy rule set 164 is only associated with the email subclient168, and not the file system subclient 166. Compliance copies generatedaccording to compliance copy rule set 164 will therefore not includeprimary data 112A from the file system subclient 166. For instance, theorganization may be under an obligation to store and maintain copies ofemail data for a particular period of time (e.g., 10 years) to complywith state or federal regulations, while similar regulations do notapply to file system data. Compliance copy rule set 164 is associatedwith the same tape library 108B and media agent 144B as disasterrecovery copy rule set 162, although a different storage device or mediaagent could be used in other embodiments. Finally, compliance copy ruleset 164 specifies that copies generated under compliance copy rule set164 will be retained for 10 years and will be generated quarterly.

Secondary Copy Jobs

A logical grouping of secondary copy operations governed by a rule setand being initiated at a point in time may be referred to as a“secondary copy job” and sometimes may be called a “backup job,” eventhough it is not necessarily limited to creating backup copies.Secondary copy jobs may be initiated on demand as well. Steps 1-9 belowillustrate three secondary copy jobs based on storage policy 148A.

At step 1, storage manager 140 initiates a backup job according to thebackup copy rule set 160, which logically comprises all the secondarycopy operations necessary to effectuate rules 160 in storage policy 148Aevery hour, including steps 1-4 occurring hourly. For instance, ascheduling service running on storage manager 140 accesses backup copyrule set 160 or a separate scheduling policy associated with clientcomputing device 102 and initiates a backup job on an hourly basis.Thus, at the scheduled time, storage manager 140 sends instructions toclient computing device 102 (i.e., to both data agent 142A and dataagent 142B) to begin the backup job.

At step 2, file system data agent 142A and email data agent 142Boperating on client computing device 102 respond to the instructionsreceived from storage manager 140 by accessing and processing therespective subclient primary data 112A and 112B involved in the backupcopy operation, which can be found in primary storage device 104.Because the secondary copy operation is a backup copy operation, thedata agent(s) 142A, 142B may format the data into a backup format orotherwise process the data suitable for a backup copy.

At step 3, client computing device 102 (e.g., using file system dataagent 142A) communicates the processed data to the first media agent144A according to backup copy rule set 160, as directed by storagemanager 140. Storage manager 140 may further keep a record in managementdatabase 146 of the association between media agent 144A and one or moreof: client computing device 102, file system data agent 142A, and/orbackup copy 116A.

The target media agent 144A receives the data-agent-processed data fromclient computing device 102, and at step 4 generates and conveys backupcopy 116A to disk library 108A to be stored as backup copy 116A, againat the direction of storage manager 140 and according to backup copyrule set 160. Media agent 144A can also update its index 153 to includedata and/or metadata related to backup copy 116A, such as informationindicating where the backup copy 116A resides on disk library 108A, dataand metadata for cache retrieval, etc. Storage manager 140 may similarlyupdate its index 150 to include information relating to the secondarycopy operation, such as information relating to the type of operation, aphysical location associated with one or more copies created by theoperation, the time the operation was performed, status informationrelating to the operation, the components involved in the operation, andthe like. In some cases, storage manager 140 may update its index 150 toinclude some or all of the information stored in index 153 of mediaagent 144A. At this point, the backup job may be considered complete.After the 30-day retention period expires, storage manager 140 instructsmedia agent 144A to delete backup copy 116A from disk library 108A andindexes 150 and/or 153 are updated accordingly.

At step 5, storage manager 140 initiates another backup job according tothe disaster recovery rule set 162. Illustratively this includes steps5-7 occurring daily for creating disaster recovery copy 1168. Disasterrecovery copy 1168 will be based on backup copy 116A and not on primarydata 112A and 112B.

At step 6, illustratively based on instructions received from storagemanager 140 at step 5, the specified media agent 144B retrieves the mostrecent backup copy 116A from disk library 108A.

At step 7, again at the direction of storage manager 140 and asspecified in disaster recovery copy rule set 162, media agent 144B usesthe retrieved data to create a disaster recovery copy 1168 and store itto tape library 108B. In some cases, disaster recovery copy 1168 is adirect, mirror copy of backup copy 116A, and remains in the backupformat. In other embodiments, disaster recovery copy 1168 may begenerated in some other manner, such as by using primary data 112A, 1128from primary storage device 104 as source data. The disaster recoverycopy operation is initiated once a day and disaster recovery copies 1168are deleted after 60 days; indexes 153 and/or 150 are updatedaccordingly when/after each information management operation is executedand/or completed. The present backup job may be considered to becomplete.

At step 8, storage manager 140 initiates another backup job according tocompliance rule set 164, which includes steps 8-9 occurring quarterlyfor creating compliance copy 116C. For instance, storage manager 140instructs media agent 144B to create compliance copy 116C on tapelibrary 108B, as specified in the compliance copy rule set 164.

At step 9 in the example, compliance copy 116C is generated usingdisaster recovery copy 1168 as the source. In other embodiments,compliance copy 116C is instead generated using primary data 1128corresponding to the email subclient or using backup copy 116A from disklibrary 108A as source data. As specified in the illustrated example,compliance copies 116C are created quarterly, and are deleted after tenyears, and indexes 153 and/or 150 are kept up-to-date accordingly.

Exemplary Applications of Storage Policies—Information GovernancePolicies and Classification

Storage manager 140 may permit a user to specify aspects of storagepolicy 148A. For example, the storage policy can be modified to includeinformation governance policies to define how data should be managed inorder to comply with a certain regulation or business objective. Thevarious policies may be stored, for example, in management database 146.An information governance policy may align with one or more compliancetasks that are imposed by regulations or business requirements. Examplesof information governance policies might include a Sarbanes-Oxleypolicy, a HIPAA policy, an electronic discovery (e-discovery) policy,and so on.

Information governance policies allow administrators to obtain differentperspectives on an organization's online and offline data, without theneed for a dedicated data silo created solely for each differentviewpoint. As described previously, the data storage systems hereinbuild an index that reflects the contents of a distributed data set thatspans numerous clients and storage devices, including both primary dataand secondary copies, and online and offline copies. An organization mayapply multiple information governance policies in a top-down manner overthat unified data set and indexing schema in order to view andmanipulate the data set through different lenses, each of which isadapted to a particular compliance or business goal. Thus, for example,by applying an e-discovery policy and a Sarbanes-Oxley policy, twodifferent groups of users in an organization can conduct two verydifferent analyses of the same underlying physical set of data/copies,which may be distributed throughout the information management system.

An information governance policy may comprise a classification policy,which defines a taxonomy of classification terms or tags relevant to acompliance task and/or business objective. A classification policy mayalso associate a defined tag with a classification rule. Aclassification rule defines a particular combination of criteria, suchas users who have created, accessed or modified a document or dataobject; file or application types; content or metadata keywords; clientsor storage locations; dates of data creation and/or access; reviewstatus or other status within a workflow (e.g., reviewed orun-reviewed); modification times or types of modifications; and/or anyother data attributes in any combination, without limitation. Aclassification rule may also be defined using other classification tagsin the taxonomy. The various criteria used to define a classificationrule may be combined in any suitable fashion, for example, via Booleanoperators, to define a complex classification rule. As an example, ane-discovery classification policy might define a classification tag“privileged” that is associated with documents or data objects that (1)were created or modified by legal department staff, or (2) were sent toor received from outside counsel via email, or (3) contain one of thefollowing keywords: “privileged” or “attorney” or “counsel”, or otherlike terms. Accordingly, all these documents or data objects will beclassified as “privileged.”

One specific type of classification tag, which may be added to an indexat the time of indexing, is an “entity tag.” An entity tag may be, forexample, any content that matches a defined data mask format. Examplesof entity tags might include, e.g., social security numbers (e.g., anynumerical content matching the formatting mask XXX-XX-XXXX), credit cardnumbers (e.g., content having a 13-16 digit string of numbers), SKUnumbers, product numbers, etc. A user may define a classification policyby indicating criteria, parameters or descriptors of the policy via agraphical user interface, such as a form or page with fields to befilled in, pull-down menus or entries allowing one or more of severaloptions to be selected, buttons, sliders, hypertext links or other knownuser interface tools for receiving user input, etc. For example, a usermay define certain entity tags, such as a particular product number orproject ID code that is relevant in the organization. In someimplementations, the classification policy can be implemented usingcloud-based techniques. For example, the storage devices may be cloudstorage devices, and the storage manager 140 may execute cloud serviceprovider API over a network to classify data stored on cloud storagedevices.

Restore Operations from Secondary Copies

While not shown in FIG. 1E, at some later point in time, a restoreoperation can be initiated involving one or more of secondary copies116A, 1168, 116C. A restore operation logically takes a selectedsecondary copy 116, reverses the effects of the secondary copy operationthat created it, and stores the restored data to primary storage where aclient computing device 102 may properly access it as primary data. Amedia agent 144 and an appropriate data agent 142 (e.g., executing onthe client computing device 102) perform the tasks needed to complete arestore operation. For example, data that was encrypted, compressed,and/or deduplicated in the creation of secondary copy 116 will becorrespondingly rehydrated (reversing deduplication), uncompressed, andunencrypted into a format appropriate to primary data. In general,restored data should be indistinguishable from other primary data 112.Preferably, the restored data has fully regained the native format thatmay make it immediately usable by application 110.

As one example, a user may manually initiate a restore of backup copy116A, e.g., by interacting with user interface 158 of storage manager140 or with a web-based console with access to system 100. Storagemanager 140 may accesses data in its index 150 and/or managementdatabase 146 (and/or the respective storage policy 148A) associated withthe selected backup copy 116A to identify the appropriate media agent144A and/or secondary storage device 108A where the secondary copyresides. The user may be presented with a representation (e.g., stub,thumbnail, listing, etc.) and metadata about the selected secondarycopy, in order to determine whether this is the appropriate copy to berestored, e.g., date that the original primary data was created. Storagemanager 140 will then instruct media agent 144A and an appropriate dataagent 142 to restore secondary copy 116A to primary storage device 104.A media agent may be selected for use in the restore operation based ona load balancing algorithm, an availability based algorithm, or othercriteria. The selected media agent, e.g., 144A, retrieves secondary copy116A from disk library 108A. For instance, media agent 144A may accessits index 153 to identify a location of backup copy 116A on disk library108A, or may access location information residing on disk library 108Aitself.

In some cases when backup copy 116A was recently created or accessed,caching may speed up the restore operation. In such a case, media agent144A accesses a cached version of backup copy 116A residing in index153, without having to access disk library 108A for some or all of thedata. Once it has retrieved backup copy 116A, the media agent 144Acommunicates the data to the requesting client computing device 102.Upon receipt, file system data agent 142A and email data agent 142B mayunpackage (e.g., restore from a backup format to the native applicationformat) the data in backup copy 116A and restore the unpackaged data toprimary storage device 104. In general, secondary copies 116 may berestored to the same volume or folder in primary storage device 104 fromwhich the secondary copy was derived; to another storage location orclient computing device 102; to shared storage. In some cases the datamay be restored so that it may be used by an application 110 of adifferent version/vintage from the application that created the originalprimary data 112.

Exemplary Secondary Copy Formatting

The formatting and structure of secondary copies 116 can vary dependingon the embodiment. In some cases, secondary copies 116 are formatted asa series of logical data units or “chunks” (e.g., 512 MB, 1 GB, 2 GB, 4GB, or 8 GB chunks). This can facilitate efficient communication andwriting to secondary storage devices 108, e.g., according to resourceavailability. For example, a single secondary copy 116 may be written ona chunk-by-chunk basis to one or more secondary storage devices 108. Insome cases, users can select different chunk sizes, e.g., to improvethroughput to tape storage devices. Generally, each chunk can include aheader and a payload. The payload can include files (or other dataunits) or subsets thereof included in the chunk, whereas the chunkheader generally includes metadata relating to the chunk, some or all ofwhich may be derived from the payload. For example, during a secondarycopy operation, media agent 144, storage manager 140, or other componentmay divide files into chunks and generate headers for each chunk byprocessing the files. The headers can include a variety of informationsuch as file identifier(s), volume(s), offset(s), or other informationassociated with the payload data items, a chunk sequence number, etc.Importantly, in addition to being stored with secondary copy 116 onsecondary storage device 108, the chunk headers can also be stored toindex 153 of the associated media agent(s) 144 and/or to index 150associated with storage manager 140. This can be useful in some casesfor providing faster processing of secondary copies 116 during browsing,restores, or other operations. In some cases, once a chunk issuccessfully transferred to a secondary storage device 108, thesecondary storage device 108 returns an indication of receipt, e.g., tomedia agent 144 and/or storage manager 140, which may update theirrespective indexes 153, 150 accordingly. During restore, chunks may beprocessed (e.g., by media agent 144) according to the information in thechunk header to reassemble the files.

Data can also be communicated within system 100 in data channels thatconnect client computing devices 102 to secondary storage devices 108.These data channels can be referred to as “data streams”, and multipledata streams can be employed to parallelize an information managementoperation, improving data transfer rate, among other advantages. Exampledata formatting techniques including techniques involving datastreaming, chunking, and the use of other data structures in creatingsecondary copies are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,315,923 8,156,086,and 8,578,120.

FIGS. 1F and 1G are diagrams of example data streams 170 and 171,respectively, which may be employed for performing informationmanagement operations. Referring to FIG. 1F, data agent 142 forms datastream 170 from source data associated with a client computing device102 (e.g., primary data 112). Data stream 170 is composed of multiplepairs of stream header 172 and stream data (or stream payload) 174. Datastreams 170 and 171 shown in the illustrated example are for asingle-instanced storage operation, and a stream payload 174 thereforemay include both single-instance (SI) data and/or non-SI data. A streamheader 172 includes metadata about the stream payload 174. This metadatamay include, for example, a length of the stream payload 174, anindication of whether the stream payload 174 is encrypted, an indicationof whether the stream payload 174 is compressed, an archive fileidentifier (ID), an indication of whether the stream payload 174 issingle instanceable, and an indication of whether the stream payload 174is a start of a block of data.

Referring to FIG. 1G, data stream 171 has the stream header 172 andstream payload 174 aligned into multiple data blocks. In this example,the data blocks are of size 64 KB. The first two stream header 172 andstream payload 174 pairs comprise a first data block of size 64 KB. Thefirst stream header 172 indicates that the length of the succeedingstream payload 174 is 63 KB and that it is the start of a data block.The next stream header 172 indicates that the succeeding stream payload174 has a length of 1 KB and that it is not the start of a new datablock. Immediately following stream payload 174 is a pair comprising anidentifier header 176 and identifier data 178. The identifier header 176includes an indication that the succeeding identifier data 178 includesthe identifier for the immediately previous data block. The identifierdata 178 includes the identifier that the data agent 142 generated forthe data block. The data stream 171 also includes other stream header172 and stream payload 174 pairs, which may be for SI data and/or non-SIdata.

FIG. 1H is a diagram illustrating data structures 180 that may be usedto store blocks of SI data and non-SI data on a storage device (e.g.,secondary storage device 108). According to certain embodiments, datastructures 180 do not form part of a native file system of the storagedevice. Data structures 180 include one or more volume folders 182, oneor more chunk folders 184/185 within the volume folder 182, and multiplefiles within chunk folder 184. Each chunk folder 184/185 includes ametadata file 186/187, a metadata index file 188/189, one or morecontainer files 190/191/193, and a container index file 192/194.Metadata file 186/187 stores non-SI data blocks as well as links to SIdata blocks stored in container files. Metadata index file 188/189stores an index to the data in the metadata file 186/187. Containerfiles 190/191/193 store SI data blocks. Container index file 192/194stores an index to container files 190/191/193. Among other things,container index file 192/194 stores an indication of whether acorresponding block in a container file 190/191/193 is referred to by alink in a metadata file 186/187. For example, data block B2 in thecontainer file 190 is referred to by a link in metadata file 187 inchunk folder 185. Accordingly, the corresponding index entry incontainer index file 192 indicates that data block B2 in container file190 is referred to. As another example, data block B1 in container file191 is referred to by a link in metadata file 187, and so thecorresponding index entry in container index file 192 indicates thatthis data block is referred to.

As an example, data structures 180 illustrated in FIG. 1H may have beencreated as a result of separate secondary copy operations involving twoclient computing devices 102. For example, a first secondary copyoperation on a first client computing device 102 could result in thecreation of the first chunk folder 184, and a second secondary copyoperation on a second client computing device 102 could result in thecreation of the second chunk folder 185. Container files 190/191 in thefirst chunk folder 184 would contain the blocks of SI data of the firstclient computing device 102. If the two client computing devices 102have substantially similar data, the second secondary copy operation onthe data of the second client computing device 102 would result in mediaagent 144 storing primarily links to the data blocks of the first clientcomputing device 102 that are already stored in the container files190/191. Accordingly, while a first secondary copy operation may resultin storing nearly all of the data subject to the operation, subsequentsecondary storage operations involving similar data may result insubstantial data storage space savings, because links to already storeddata blocks can be stored instead of additional instances of datablocks.

If the operating system of the secondary storage computing device 106 onwhich media agent 144 operates supports sparse files, then when mediaagent 144 creates container files 190/191/193, it can create them assparse files. A sparse file is a type of file that may include emptyspace (e.g., a sparse file may have real data within it, such as at thebeginning of the file and/or at the end of the file, but may also haveempty space in it that is not storing actual data, such as a contiguousrange of bytes all having a value of zero). Having container files190/191/193 be sparse files allows media agent 144 to free up space incontainer files 190/191/193 when blocks of data in container files190/191/193 no longer need to be stored on the storage devices. In someexamples, media agent 144 creates a new container file 190/191/193 whena container file 190/191/193 either includes 100 blocks of data or whenthe size of the container file 190 exceeds 50 MB. In other examples,media agent 144 creates a new container file 190/191/193 when acontainer file 190/191/193 satisfies other criteria (e.g., it containsfrom approximately 100 to approximately 1000 blocks or when its sizeexceeds approximately 50 MB to 1 GB). In some cases, a file on which asecondary copy operation is performed may comprise a large number ofdata blocks. For example, a 100 MB file may comprise 400 data blocks ofsize 256 KB. If such a file is to be stored, its data blocks may spanmore than one container file, or even more than one chunk folder. Asanother example, a database file of 20 GB may comprise over 40,000 datablocks of size 512 KB. If such a database file is to be stored, its datablocks will likely span multiple container files, multiple chunkfolders, and potentially multiple volume folders. Restoring such filesmay require accessing multiple container files, chunk folders, and/orvolume folders to obtain the requisite data blocks.

Using Backup Data for Replication and Disaster Recovery (“LiveSynchronization”)

There is an increased demand to off-load resource intensive informationmanagement tasks (e.g., data replication tasks) away from productiondevices (e.g., physical or virtual client computing devices) in order tomaximize production efficiency. At the same time, enterprises expectaccess to readily-available up-to-date recovery copies in the event offailure, with little or no production downtime.

FIG. 2A illustrates a system 200 configured to address these and otherissues by using backup or other secondary copy data to synchronize asource subsystem 201 (e.g., a production site) with a destinationsubsystem 203 (e.g., a failover site). Such a technique can be referredto as “live synchronization” and/or “live synchronization replication.”In the illustrated embodiment, the source client computing devices 202 ainclude one or more virtual machines (or “VMs”) executing on one or morecorresponding VM host computers 205 a, though the source need not bevirtualized. The destination site 203 may be at a location that isremote from the production site 201, or may be located in the same datacenter, without limitation. One or more of the production site 201 anddestination site 203 may reside at data centers at known geographiclocations, or alternatively may operate “in the cloud.”

The synchronization can be achieved by generally applying an ongoingstream of incremental backups from the source subsystem 201 to thedestination subsystem 203, such as according to what can be referred toas an “incremental forever” approach. FIG. 2A illustrates an embodimentof a data flow which may be orchestrated at the direction of one or morestorage managers (not shown). At step 1, the source data agent(s) 242 aand source media agent(s) 244 a work together to write backup or othersecondary copies of the primary data generated by the source clientcomputing devices 202 a into the source secondary storage device(s) 208a. At step 2, the backup/secondary copies are retrieved by the sourcemedia agent(s) 244 a from secondary storage. At step 3, source mediaagent(s) 244 a communicate the backup/secondary copies across a networkto the destination media agent(s) 244 b in destination subsystem 203.

As shown, the data can be copied from source to destination in anincremental fashion, such that only changed blocks are transmitted, andin some cases multiple incremental backups are consolidated at thesource so that only the most current changed blocks are transmitted toand applied at the destination. An example of live synchronization ofvirtual machines using the “incremental forever” approach is found inU.S. Patent Application No. 62/265,339 entitled “Live Synchronizationand Management of Virtual Machines across Computing and VirtualizationPlatforms and Using Live Synchronization to Support Disaster Recovery.”Moreover, a deduplicated copy can be employed to further reduce networktraffic from source to destination. For instance, the system can utilizethe deduplicated copy techniques described in U.S. Pat. No. 9,239,687,entitled “Systems and Methods for Retaining and Using Data BlockSignatures in Data Protection Operations.”

At step 4, destination media agent(s) 244 b write the receivedbackup/secondary copy data to the destination secondary storagedevice(s) 208 b. At step 5, the synchronization is completed when thedestination media agent(s) and destination data agent(s) 242 b restorethe backup/secondary copy data to the destination client computingdevice(s) 202 b. The destination client computing device(s) 202 b may bekept “warm” awaiting activation in case failure is detected at thesource. This synchronization/replication process can incorporate thetechniques described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/721,971,entitled “Replication Using Deduplicated Secondary Copy Data.”

Where the incremental backups are applied on a frequent, on-going basis,the synchronized copies can be viewed as mirror or replication copies.Moreover, by applying the incremental backups to the destination site203 using backup or other secondary copy data, the production site 201is not burdened with the synchronization operations. Because thedestination site 203 can be maintained in a synchronized “warm” state,the downtime for switching over from the production site 201 to thedestination site 203 is substantially less than with a typical restorefrom secondary storage. Thus, the production site 201 may flexibly andefficiently fail over, with minimal downtime and with relativelyup-to-date data, to a destination site 203, such as a cloud-basedfailover site. The destination site 203 can later be reversesynchronized back to the production site 201, such as after repairs havebeen implemented or after the failure has passed.

Integrating with the Cloud Using File System Protocols

Given the ubiquity of cloud computing, it can be increasingly useful toprovide data protection and other information management services in ascalable, transparent, and highly plug-able fashion. FIG. 2B illustratesan information management system 200 having an architecture thatprovides such advantages, and incorporates use of a standard file systemprotocol between primary and secondary storage subsystems 217, 218. Asshown, the use of the network file system (NFS) protocol (or any anotherappropriate file system protocol such as that of the Common InternetFile System (CIFS)) allows data agent 242 to be moved from the primarystorage subsystem 217 to the secondary storage subsystem 218. Forinstance, as indicated by the dashed box 206 around data agent 242 andmedia agent 244, data agent 242 can co-reside with media agent 244 onthe same server (e.g., a secondary storage computing device such ascomponent 106), or in some other location in secondary storage subsystem218.

Where NFS is used, for example, secondary storage subsystem 218allocates an NFS network path to the client computing device 202 or toone or more target applications 210 running on client computing device202. During a backup or other secondary copy operation, the clientcomputing device 202 mounts the designated NFS path and writes data tothat NFS path. The NFS path may be obtained from NFS path data 215stored locally at the client computing device 202, and which may be acopy of or otherwise derived from NFS path data 219 stored in thesecondary storage subsystem 218.

Write requests issued by client computing device(s) 202 are received bydata agent 242 in secondary storage subsystem 218, which translates therequests and works in conjunction with media agent 244 to process andwrite data to a secondary storage device(s) 208, thereby creating abackup or other secondary copy. Storage manager 240 can include apseudo-client manager 217, which coordinates the process by, among otherthings, communicating information relating to client computing device202 and application 210 (e.g., application type, client computing deviceidentifier, etc.) to data agent 242, obtaining appropriate NFS path datafrom the data agent 242 (e.g., NFS path information), and deliveringsuch data to client computing device 202.

Conversely, during a restore or recovery operation client computingdevice 202 reads from the designated NFS network path, and the readrequest is translated by data agent 242. The data agent 242 then workswith media agent 244 to retrieve, re-process (e.g., re-hydrate,decompress, decrypt), and forward the requested data to client computingdevice 202 using NFS.

By moving specialized software associated with system 200 such as dataagent 242 off the client computing devices 202, the illustrativearchitecture effectively decouples the client computing devices 202 fromthe installed components of system 200, improving both scalability andplug-ability of system 200. Indeed, the secondary storage subsystem 218in such environments can be treated simply as a read/write NFS targetfor primary storage subsystem 217, without the need for informationmanagement software to be installed on client computing devices 202. Asone example, an enterprise implementing a cloud production computingenvironment can add VM client computing devices 202 without installingand configuring specialized information management software on theseVMs. Rather, backups and restores are achieved transparently, where thenew VMs simply write to and read from the designated NFS path. Anexample of integrating with the cloud using file system protocols orso-called “infinite backup” using NFS share is found in U.S. PatentApplication No. 62/294,920, entitled “Data Protection Operations Basedon Network Path Information.” Examples of improved data restorationscenarios based on network-path information, including using storedbackups effectively as primary data sources, may be found in U.S. PatentApplication No. 62/297,057, entitled “Data Restoration Operations Basedon Network Path Information.”

Highly Scalable Managed Data Pool Architecture

Enterprises are seeing explosive data growth in recent years, often fromvarious applications running in geographically distributed locations.FIG. 2C shows a block diagram of an example of a highly scalable,managed data pool architecture useful in accommodating such data growth.The illustrated system 200, which may be referred to as a “web-scale”architecture according to certain embodiments, can be readilyincorporated into both open compute/storage and common-cloudarchitectures.

The illustrated system 200 includes a grid 245 of media agents 244logically organized into a control tier 231 and a secondary or storagetier 233. Media agents assigned to the storage tier 233 can beconfigured to manage a secondary storage pool 208 as a deduplicationstore, and be configured to receive client write and read requests fromthe primary storage subsystem 217, and direct those requests to thesecondary tier 233 for servicing. For instance, media agents CMA1-CMA3in the control tier 231 maintain and consult one or more deduplicationdatabases 247, which can include deduplication information (e.g., datablock hashes, data block links, file containers for deduplicated files,etc.) sufficient to read deduplicated files from secondary storage pool208 and write deduplicated files to secondary storage pool 208. Forinstance, system 200 can incorporate any of the deduplication systemsand methods shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 9,020,900, entitled“Distributed Deduplicated Storage System,” and U.S. Pat. Pub. No.2014/0201170, entitled “High Availability Distributed DeduplicatedStorage System.”

Media agents SMA1-SMA6 assigned to the secondary tier 233 receive writeand read requests from media agents CMA1-CMA3 in control tier 231, andaccess secondary storage pool 208 to service those requests. Mediaagents CMA1-CMA3 in control tier 231 can also communicate with secondarystorage pool 208, and may execute read and write requests themselves(e.g., in response to requests from other control media agentsCMA1-CMA3) in addition to issuing requests to media agents in secondarytier 233. Moreover, while shown as separate from the secondary storagepool 208, deduplication database(s) 247 can in some cases reside instorage devices in secondary storage pool 208.

As shown, each of the media agents 244 (e.g., CMA1-CMA3, SMA1-SMA6,etc.) in grid 245 can be allocated a corresponding dedicated partition251A-251I, respectively, in secondary storage pool 208. Each partition251 can include a first portion 253 containing data associated with(e.g., stored by) media agent 244 corresponding to the respectivepartition 251. System 200 can also implement a desired level ofreplication, thereby providing redundancy in the event of a failure of amedia agent 244 in grid 245. Along these lines, each partition 251 canfurther include a second portion 255 storing one or more replicationcopies of the data associated with one or more other media agents 244 inthe grid.

System 200 can also be configured to allow for seamless addition ofmedia agents 244 to grid 245 via automatic configuration. As oneillustrative example, a storage manager (not shown) or other appropriatecomponent may determine that it is appropriate to add an additional nodeto control tier 231, and perform some or all of the following: (i)assess the capabilities of a newly added or otherwise availablecomputing device as satisfying a minimum criteria to be configured as orhosting a media agent in control tier 231; (ii) confirm that asufficient amount of the appropriate type of storage exists to supportan additional node in control tier 231 (e.g., enough disk drive capacityexists in storage pool 208 to support an additional deduplicationdatabase 247); (iii) install appropriate media agent software on thecomputing device and configure the computing device according to apre-determined template; (iv) establish a partition 251 in the storagepool 208 dedicated to the newly established media agent 244; and (v)build any appropriate data structures (e.g., an instance ofdeduplication database 247). An example of highly scalable managed datapool architecture or so-called web-scale architecture for storage anddata management is found in U.S. Patent Application No. 62/273,286entitled “Redundant and Robust Distributed Deduplication Data StorageSystem.”

The embodiments and components thereof disclosed in FIGS. 2A, 2B, and2C, as well as those in FIGS. 1A-1H, may be implemented in anycombination and permutation to satisfy data storage management andinformation management needs at one or more locations and/or datacenters.

Example Redundant Distributed Deduplication Data Storage System

The components illustrated in FIGS. 3A through 8 can be implementedwithin an example highly scalable managed data pool architecture, suchas the highly scalable managed data pool architecture described abovewith respect to FIG. 2C. Furthermore, FIGS. 9 through 14 depict routinesthat can implemented by one or more components in an example highlyscalable managed data pool architecture.

FIG. 3A is a block diagram illustrating a scalable informationmanagement system. As shown in FIG. 3A, the system 100 can furtherinclude one or more deduplication database media agents 222, 224, 226,and 228 (DDB media agents), examples of which are described in greaterdetail in U.S. Pub. No. 2012/0150826, previously incorporated herein byreference. The DDB media agents 222, 224, 226, and 228 can includededuplication databases 210A-210D that store deduplication information(e.g., data block signatures, the location information of data blocksstored in the secondary storage devices 108, a count value indicative ofthe number of instances that a particular block is used, etc.). Suchinformation can be stored in a primary table, for example. Thededuplication databases 210A-210D can include additional datastructures, such as a deduplication chunk table and/or a chunk integritytable. Furthermore, the DDB media agents 222, 224, 226, and 228 can beimplemented on the same secondary storage computing devices 106 as oneor more of the media agents 144, or on separate computing devices.

During a backup or other secondary copy operation using deduplicationtechniques, the system 100 can query the DDB media agents 222, 224, 226,and/or 228 and corresponding deduplication databases 210A-210D forsignatures of the data blocks to be backed up. In some embodiments, theclient computing device 102 can query the DDB media agents 222, 224,226, and/or 228 and in certain embodiments, the secondary storagecomputing devices 106 can query the DDB media agents 222, 224, 226,and/or 228. When a signature is found in the DDB media agents 222, 224,226, or 228, a link to the location of a copy of the data block storedin the secondary storage devices 108 is stored as part of the backup.When a signature is not found in the DDB media agents 222, 224, 226, or228, a copy of the data block is stored in the secondary storage devices108, and the signature of the data block (and other deduplicationinformation) is stored in the appropriate DDB media agent(s) 222, 224,226, or 228.

A data block distribution policy can specify which DDB media agents 222,224, 226, or 228 store which signatures and which DDB media agents 222,224, 226, or 228 are therefore queried for particular data blocksignatures. For example, the distribution policy can indicate that datablock signatures are stored in DDB media agents 222, 224, 226, or 228based on a modulo operation of the signature of the data block, asdescribed previously. One example of an implementation of such a policywill now be described.

According to the example, during a backup operation one of the mediaagents 144 is assigned, at the direction of the storage manager 140, toback up a data file for one of the client computing devices 102. Foreach constituent data block in the file, the media agent 144 calculatesa hash or other signature for the data block, and consults thededuplication database 210 of a selected one of the DDB media agents224.

The media agent 144 selects the appropriate DDB media agent 222, 224,226, 228 to consult based on a pre-defined data block distributionpolicy. In the example embodiment, the distribution policy dictates thatthe deduplication information is distributed across the DDB media agents222, 224, 226, 228 by assigning each data block to a selected DDB mediaagent based on the modulo of the data block hash value. In the exampleimplementation, there are four available DDB media agents 222, 224, 226,228, and a modulo four is therefore applied to the data block hashvalue, resulting in an output value within the set {0, 1, 2, 3}. Datablocks are assigned to DDB media agents as follows: modulo output=‘0’,assigned to DDBMA 222; modulo output=‘1’, assigned to DDBMA 224; modulooutput=‘2’ assigned to DDBMA 226; and modulo output=‘3’ assigned toDDBMA 228.

For a first exemplary data block in the file, the media agent 144computes the hash, takes the modulo of the hash, resulting in an outputof ‘2’, and therefore sends the data block hash to the DDB media agent226. The DDB media agent 226 references its deduplication database 210Cusing the hash, and finds an entry indicating that a copy of the datablock already exists in the secondary storage devices 108. Thus, the DDBmedia agent 226 returns a link to the media agent 144 indicating thelocation of the copy of the data block in the secondary storage devices108. Then, when the media agent 144 writes the backup copy of the fileto the secondary storage device(s) 108, the media agent 144 includes thelink within the backup copy of the file instead of including a duplicatecopy of the actual data block.

For a second exemplary data block in the file, the requesting mediaagent 144 computes the hash, takes the modulo of the hash, resulting inan output of ‘1’, and therefore sends the hash to the DDB media agent224. The DDB media agent 224 references its deduplication database 210Busing the hash, and does not find an entry corresponding to the datablock. The DDB media agent 224 returns an indication to the media agent144 that the data block does not yet exist in the secondary storagedevices 108. When the media agent 144 writes the backup copy of the fileto the secondary storage device(s) 108, the media agent 144 includes anactual copy of the data block with the backup copy of the file. The DDBmedia agent 224 also updates its deduplication database 210B to includean entry corresponding to the hash of the data block and including alink specifying the location of the stored data block in the secondarystorage devices 108. For instance, the requesting media agent 144 may beassigned to write data only to a particular secondary storage device 108according to a pre-defined policy, and the DDB media agent 224 maytherefore include a link specifying that the data block is stored in thesecondary storage device 108 assigned to the requesting media agent 144.Further examples of distributed deduplication storage schemes areprovided in U.S. Pat. No. 9,020,900, which is incorporated by referenceherein.

Furthermore, should one of the DDB media agents (e.g., DDB media agent222) become unavailable, the distribution policy can specify another DDBmedia agent (e.g., DDB media agent 226) as a failover DDB media agentand use the failover DDB media agent for deduplication operations whilethe other DDB media agent (e.g., DDB media agent 222) is unavailable, asdescribed in greater detail below.

In some embodiments, one or more of the media agents 144 can act ascontrol media agents and the other media agents 144 can act as secondarymedia agents. A control media agent can be configured to managededuplication information, receive read/write requests from the clientcomputing devices 102 and/or the storage manager 140 (e.g., where readrequests are requests to restore a backup copy of a file and writerequests are requests to write a backup copy of a file to the secondarystorage device(s) 108), and direct read/write requests to theappropriate secondary media agent. A secondary media agent can beconfigured to process the received read/write requests based ondeduplication information provided by a control media agent. Thus, acontrol media agent may include or be associated with a deduplicationdatabase, such as the deduplication database 210 (e.g., a control mediaagent can be a DDB media agent 222, 224, 226, or 228), while a secondarymedia agent may not include or be associated with a deduplicationdatabase.

FIG. 3B is a flow diagram depicting the operations of a control mediaagent 344A and a secondary media agent 346A in the scalable informationmanagement system 100. As illustrated in FIG. 3B, the storage manager140 can receive a read or write request from the client computing device102 (1). The storage manager 140 can transmit the request (2) to theappropriate control media agent 344. For example, the storage manager140 transmits the request to the control media agent 344A. The storagemanager 140 can determine which control media agent 344 to transmit therequest to based on an algorithm (e.g., using a module function in amanner similar to the deduplication process described above), based on arelative load of each control media agent 344 (e.g., the storage manager140 can transmit the request to the control media agent 344 consumingthe fewest computing resources at the time), and/or based on othersimilar considerations.

The control media agent 344A can obtain deduplication information fromthe DDB database 310 (3) in response to receiving the request. Forexample, the control media agent 344A can retrieve the deduplicationinformation (e.g., data block signatures) associated with the backupcopy of the file to be restored or written.

This deduplication information, along with the request (e.g., which caninclude the data to be written to the secondary storage device 108 if awrite request is received), can be transmitted by the control mediaagent 44A to the secondary media agent 346A (4). Like with the storagemanager 140, the control media agent 344A can determine which secondarymedia agent 346 to send the deduplication information and the requestbased on an algorithm (e.g., using a module function in a manner similarto the deduplication process described above), based on a relative loadof each second media agent 346 (e.g., the control media agent 344A cantransmit the request to the secondary media agent 346 consuming thefewest computing resources at the time), based on the secondary mediaagent 346A that is associated with a portion of the secondary storagedevice 108 that corresponds with the data to be read or written, and/orbased on other similar considerations.

Using the deduplication information and/or the request, the secondarymedia agent 346A can read the appropriate data from the secondarystorage device 108 (if a read request) or generate a backup copy of thedata to be written to the secondary storage device 108 (if a writerequest) (5). The process by which the secondary media agent 346A usesthe deduplication information to replace the links in a data backup whenprocessing a read request or uses the deduplication information toreplace duplicate data blocks when processing a write request aredescribed in greater detail in U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,578,109 and 9,020,900and U.S. Patent Publication No. 2014/0201170, which are herebyincorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

FIG. 4A is a flow diagram depicting the addition of a first controlmedia agent 144A in the scalable information management system 100. Inan embodiment, the scalable information management system 100 isconfigured to automatically allocate or re-allocate computing resourceswhen a new media agent 144 is added to the scalable informationmanagement system 100 or an existing media agent 144 is removed from thescalable information management system 100 (or otherwise becomesunavailable). For example, as illustrated in FIG. 4A, an administratorcan load a secondary storage computing device 106A with the appropriatesoftware such that at least a portion of the secondary storage computingdevice 106A can execute the functionality of a media agent 144A (e.g., acontrol media agent) and can then install the secondary storagecomputing device 106A (e.g., connect the secondary storage computingdevice 106A to a power source, to other components in the scalableinformation management system 100, etc.). However, the administrator maynot need to configure the media agent 144A other than the initialloading of the software such that the secondary storage computing device106A is compatible with the scalable information management system 100.Rather, once the secondary storage computing device 106A is installed,the scalable information management system 100 (e.g., the storagemanager 140) can automatically determine whether the media agent 144A ofthe new secondary storage computing device 106 should be configured as acontrol media agent or a secondary media agent, partition the secondarystorage device 108 to provide an allocation of memory associated withthe new media agent 144A (e.g., partition block 408A), configure the newmedia agent 144A with the deduplication and storage policies that areused to operate the other existing media agents 144 (not shown), and/orperform any other tasks necessary such that the new media agent 144A canprocess read and write requests. As part of configuring the new mediaagent 144A with the deduplication and storage policies, the secondarystorage computing device 106A may be associated with a DDB database210E. The DDB database 210E may store deduplication data used whenwriting to and/or reading from data stored in the partition 408A in thesecondary storage device 108.

FIG. 4B is a flow diagram depicting the addition of a first secondarymedia agent 144B to the scalable information management system 100. Asillustrated in FIG. 4B, the secondary storage computing device 106A isan existing secondary storage computing device and secondary storagecomputing device 106B is a new secondary storage computing device. Forexample, the new secondary storage computing device 106B may sync withthe storage manager 140. In response to the syncing, the storage manager140 may create a new storage pool for the secondary storage computingdevice 106B and/or send a message back to the secondary storagecomputing device 106B to create a new file system (e.g., GlusterFS)(e.g., if this is the first or second secondary storage computing deviceinstalled), including information on the other secondary storagecomputing devices (e.g., secondary storage computing device 106A). Thesecondary storage computing device 106B may start the new file systemvolume and send back to the storage manager 140 a data path for thesecondary storage computing device 106B (and this information can bestored in a disk library). The storage manager 140 can use thisinformation to create a library, storage policy (if not alreadycreated), etc. Alternatively (e.g., if the secondary storage computingdevice 106B is not the first or second secondary storage computingdevice installed), the storage manager 140 can instruct the secondarystorage computing device 106B to join an existing file system byproviding the volume information (and path information from thesecondary storage computing device 106B can be stored by the storagemanager 140 in the existing disk library). Thus, the secondary storagecomputing device 106B may send information on its available computingresources (e.g., available memory, disk information, such as the filesystem, the type of data that can be stored, etc., processing power,etc.) and/or path information (e.g., disk library mount path, etc.) tothe storage manager 140. The storage manager 140 may also auto-detectthe volumes on the disks of the secondary storage computing device 106B.

Based on the detected and/or received information, the storage manager140 can determine whether the media agent 144B should be a control mediaagent or a secondary media agent. In an embodiment, the secondarystorage computing device 106B does not have the computing resourcesnecessary to include or be associated with a DDB database 210. Thus, thestorage manager 140 may configure the media agent 144B to be a secondarymedia agent.

Based on the detected and/or received information, the storage manager140 can also partition (or re-partition) the secondary storage device108 to include memory allocated for specific use by each of thesecondary storage computing devices 106A-B. For example, the secondarystorage device 108 previously included a partition represented by block408A allocated specifically for use by the secondary storage computingdevice 106A. With the addition of the secondary storage computing device106B, the memory represented by block 408A in FIG. 4A may remainallocated to the secondary storage computing device 106A (e.g., only thesecondary storage computing device 106A has access to the partition).However, the storage manager 140 can instruct the secondary storagecomputing device 106A to further partition (e.g., sub-partition) thememory allocated to the secondary storage computing device 106A suchthat memory is allocated for storing data associated with the secondarystorage computing devices 106A-B. For example, the sub-partitionrepresented by block 408A may correspond to the data associated with thesecondary storage computing device 106A and the sub-partitionrepresented by block 408B may correspond to the data associated with thesecondary storage computing device 106B. In an embodiment, eachsub-partition is a separate physical disk.

With the addition of the secondary storage computing device 106B, thestorage manager 140 can also create a new partition in the secondarystorage device 108 that is allocated to the secondary storage computingdevice 106B. Like with the secondary storage computing device 106A, thestorage manager 140 can instruct the secondary storage computing device106B to further partition (e.g., sub-partition) the memory allocated tothe secondary storage computing device 106B such that memory isallocated for storing data associated with the secondary storagecomputing devices 106A-B. For example, the sub-partition represented byblock 408D may correspond to the data associated with the secondarystorage computing device 106A and the sub-partition represented by block408E may correspond to the data associated with the secondary storagecomputing device 106B.

As described herein, the secondary storage computing device 106A canretrieve the data stored in the sub-partition represented by the block408A, replicate the data, and store the replicated data in thesub-partition represented by the block 408D. Alternatively, thesecondary storage computing device 106A can transmit the replicated datato the storage manager 140 to instruct the secondary storage computingdevice 106B to store the replicated data in the sub-partitionrepresented by the block 408D. Similarly, the secondary storagecomputing device 106B can store original data in the sub-partitionrepresented by block 408E, replicate this data, and store the replicateddata in the sub-partition represented by block 408B (or instruct thestorage manager 140 and/or the secondary storage computing device 106Ato store the replicated data).

FIG. 4C is a flow diagram depicting the addition of a second controlmedia agent 144C to the scalable information management system 100. Asillustrated in FIG. 4C, the secondary storage computing devices 106A-Bare existing secondary storage computing devices and secondary storagecomputing device 106C is a new secondary storage computing device. Forexample, the new secondary storage computing device 106C may sync withthe storage manager 140. In response to the syncing, the storage manager140 may create a new storage pool for the secondary storage computingdevice 106C and/or send a message back to the secondary storagecomputing device 106C to create a new file system (e.g., GlusterFS)(e.g., if this is the first or second secondary storage computing deviceinstalled), including information on the other secondary storagecomputing devices (e.g., secondary storage computing devices 106A-B).The secondary storage computing device 106C may start the new filesystem volume and send back to the storage manager 140 a data path forthe secondary storage computing device 106B and/or a deduplicationinformation data path for the secondary storage computing device 106C(and this information can be stored in a disk library). The storagemanager 140 can use this information to create a library, storage policy(if not already created), etc. Alternatively (e.g., if the secondarystorage computing device 106C is not the first or second secondarystorage computing device installed), the storage manager 140 caninstruct the secondary storage computing device 106C to join an existingfile system by providing the volume information (and path informationfrom the secondary storage computing device 106C can be stored by thestorage manager 140 in the existing disk library). Thus, the secondarystorage computing device 106C may send information on its availablecomputing resources (e.g., available memory, disk information, such asthe file system, the type of data that can be stored, etc., processingpower, etc.) and/or path information (e.g., disk library mount path,deduplication database mount path, etc.) to the storage manager 140. Thestorage manager 140 may also auto-detect the volumes on the disks of thesecondary storage computing device 106C.

Based on the detected and/or received information, the storage manager140 can determine whether the media agent 144C should be a control mediaagent or a secondary media agent. In an embodiment, the secondarystorage computing device 106C may have the computing resources necessaryto include or be associated with a DDB database (e.g., the DDB database210F here) and thus the storage manager 140 may configure the mediaagent 144C to be a control media agent.

Based on the detected and/or received information, the storage manager140 can also partition (or re-partition) the secondary storage device108 to include memory allocated for specific use by each of thesecondary storage computing devices 106A-C. For example, the secondarystorage device 108 previously included a partition represented by blocks408A-B allocated specifically for use by the secondary storage computingdevice 106A and a partition represented by blocks 408D-E allocatedspecifically for use by the secondary storage computing device 106B.With the addition of the secondary storage computing device 106C, thepartition represented by blocks 408A-B in FIG. 4B may remain allocatedto the secondary storage computing device 106A (e.g., only the secondarystorage computing device 106A has access to the partition) and thepartition represented by blocks 408D-E in FIG. 4B may remain allocatedto the secondary storage computing device 106B (e.g., only the secondarystorage computing device 106B has access to the partition). However, thestorage manager 140 can instruct the secondary storage computing device106A to further partition (e.g., sub-partition) the memory allocated tothe secondary storage computing device 106A such that memory isallocated for storing data associated with the secondary storagecomputing devices 106A-C. For example, the sub-partition represented byblock 408A may correspond to the data associated with the secondarystorage computing device 106A, the sub-partition represented by block408B may correspond to the data associated with the secondary storagecomputing device 106B, and the sub-partition represented by block 408Cmay correspond to the data associated with the secondary storagecomputing device 106C. In addition, the storage manager 140 can instructthe secondary storage computing device 106B to further partition (e.g.,sub-partition) the memory allocated to the secondary storage computingdevice 106B such that memory is allocated for storing data associatedwith the secondary storage computing devices 106A-C. For example, thesub-partition represented by block 408D may correspond to the dataassociated with the secondary storage computing device 106A, thesub-partition represented by block 408E may correspond to the dataassociated with the secondary storage computing device 106B, and thesub-partition represented by block 408F may correspond to the dataassociated with the secondary storage computing device 106C.

With the addition of the secondary storage computing device 106C, thestorage manager 140 can also create a new partition in the secondarystorage device 108 that is allocated to the secondary storage computingdevice 106C. Like with the secondary storage computing devices 106A-B,the storage manager 140 can instruct the secondary storage computingdevice 106C to further partition (e.g., sub-partition) the memoryallocated to the secondary storage computing device 106C such thatmemory is allocated for storing data associated with the secondarystorage computing devices 106A-C. For example, the sub-partitionrepresented by block 408G may correspond to the data associated with thesecondary storage computing device 106A, the sub-partition representedby block 408H may correspond to the data associated with the secondarystorage computing device 106B, and the sub-partition represented byblock 408I may correspond to the data associated with the secondarystorage computing device 106C.

The secondary storage computing device 106A can retrieve the data storedin the sub-partition represented by the block 408A, replicate the data,and store the replicated data in the sub-partition represented by theblock 408G (or instruct the storage manager 140 and/or the secondarystorage computing device 106C to store the replicated data).Furthermore, the secondary storage computing device 106B can retrievethe data stored in the sub-partition represented by the block 408E,replicate the data, and store the replicated data in the sub-partitionrepresented by the block 408H (or instruct the storage manager 140and/or the secondary storage computing device 106C to store thereplicated data). Similarly, the secondary storage computing device 106Ccan store original data in the sub-partition represented by block 408I,replicate this data, and store the replicated data in the sub-partitionrepresented by blocks 408C and 408F (or instruct the storage manager 140and/or the secondary storage computing devices 106A-B to store thereplicated data). As described in greater detail below, the secondarystorage computing device 106A can also replicate deduplication datastored in the DDB database 210E for storage in the DDB database 210F.

FIG. 4D is a flow diagram depicting the operations performed when thesecondary storage computing devices 106B-C are added to the scalableinformation management system 100. For example, the secondary storagecomputing devices 106B-C may be added at the same time. On startup, thesecondary storage computing devices 106B-C may sync with the storagemanager 140 as described above. The storage manager 140 may create a newstorage pool for the secondary storage computing devices 106B-C and/orsend a message back to the secondary storage computing devices 106B-C tocreate a new file system (e.g., GlusterFS) (e.g., if this is the firstor second secondary storage computing device installed), includinginformation on the other secondary storage computing devices (e.g.,secondary storage computing device 106A). The secondary storagecomputing devices 106B-C may start the new file system volume and sendback to the storage manager 140 a data path and a deduplicationinformation data path for each respective secondary storage computingdevice 106B-C (and this information can be stored in a disk library).The storage manager 140 can use this information to create a library,storage policy (if not already created), etc. Alternatively (e.g., ifthe secondary storage computing devices 106B-C are not the first orsecond secondary storage computing devices installed), the storagemanager 140 can instruct the secondary storage computing devices to joinan existing file system by providing the volume information (and pathinformation from the secondary storage computing devices 106B-C can bestored by the storage manager 140 in the existing disk library). Thus,the secondary storage computing devices 106B-C may send information ontheir available computing resources (e.g., available memory, diskinformation, such as the file system, the type of data that can bestored, etc., processing power, etc.) and/or path information (e.g.,disk library mount path, deduplication database mount path, etc.) to thestorage manager 140 (1) and (2). The storage manager 140 may alsoauto-detect the volumes on the disks of the secondary storage computingdevices 106B-C.

Based on the detected and/or received information, the storage manager140 can determine whether the media agents 144B-C should be controlmedia agents or secondary media agents. As described above, thesecondary storage computing device 106B does not have the computingresources necessary to include or be associated with a DDB database 210.Thus, the storage manager 140 may configure the media agent 144B to be asecondary media agent. However, the secondary storage computing device106C may have the computing resources necessary to include or beassociated with a DDB database (e.g., the DDB database 210F here) andthus the storage manager 140 may configure the media agent 144C to be acontrol media agent.

Based on the detected and/or received information, the storage manager140 can also partition (or re-partition) the secondary storage device108 to include memory allocated for specific use by each of thesecondary storage computing devices 106A-C. For example, the partitionrepresented by blocks 408A-C may be allocated to the secondary storagecomputing device 106A, the partition represented by blocks 408D-F may beallocated to the secondary storage computing device 106B, and thepartition represented by blocks 408G-I may be allocated to the secondarystorage computing device 106C.

Based on the detected and/or received information, the storage manager140 can also instruct secondary storage computing devices 106 associatedwith a DDB database 210 (e.g., the secondary storage computing devices106A and 106C) to partition their respective DDB databases 210 such thateach DDB database 210 stores deduplication information initially storedin the other DDB databases 210 for redundancy purposes. For example, thestorage manager 140 can instruct the secondary storage computing device106A (3) to partition the DDB database 210E so that one partition caninclude deduplication information from the DDB database 210F. Thesecondary storage computing device 106A can partition the DDB database210E (4) and retrieve deduplication information from the DDB database210E to be transmitted to the secondary storage computing device 106Cfor storage in a reserved partition of the DDB database 210F. Thededuplication information from the DDB database 210E can be replicatedby the secondary storage computing device 106A and transmitted directlyto the secondary storage computing device 106C for storage in thereserved partition of the DDB database 210F. Alternatively, thededuplication information from the DDB database 210E can be replicatedby the secondary storage computing device 106A and transmitted to thestorage manager 140. The storage manager 140 can then transmit thereplicated deduplication information to the secondary storage computingdevice 106C for storage in the reserved partition of the DDB database210F.

Likewise, the storage manager 140 can instruct the secondary storagedevice 106C (5) to partition the DDB database 210F so that one partitioncan include deduplication information from the DDB database 210E. Thesecondary storage computing device 106C can partition the DDB database210F (6) in response to receiving the instruction from the storagemanager 140.

The storage manager 140 can also instruct the secondary storagecomputing device 106A (3) to further partition (e.g., sub-partition) thememory allocated to the secondary storage computing device 106A suchthat memory is allocated for storing data associated with the othersecondary storage computing devices 106B-C. The number of sub-partitionsmay depend on a replication parameter, which identifies a number oftimes data associated with a secondary storage computing device 106should be replicated for redundancy purposes. In response to receivingthe instruction, the secondary storage computing device 106A canpartition the secondary storage device 108 into partitions 408A-C, wherepartition 408A corresponds to data of the secondary storage computingdevice 106A, partition 408B corresponds to data of the secondary storagecomputing device 106B, and partition 408C corresponds to data of thesecondary storage computing device 106C. The secondary storage computingdevice 106B can receive a similar instruction (7) from the storagemanager 140 and partition the secondary storage device 108 intopartitions 408D-F, where partition 408D corresponds to data of thesecondary storage computing device 106A, partition 408E corresponds todata of the secondary storage computing device 106B, and partition 408Fcorresponds to data of the secondary storage computing device 106C, andthe secondary storage computing device 106C can receive an instruction(5) to partition the secondary storage device 108 into partitions408G-I, where partition 408G corresponds to data of the secondarystorage computing device 106A, partition 408H corresponds to data of thesecondary storage computing device 106B, and partition 408I correspondsto data of the secondary storage computing device 106C.

The secondary storage computing device 106A may retrieve the data inpartition 408A (8), replicate the data, and store the replicated data inpartition 408D (9) and in partition 408G (10). Alternatively, thesecondary storage computing device 106A can transmit the replicated datato the storage manager 140 to instruct the secondary storage computingdevices 106B-C associated with the various partitions to store thereplicated data in the appropriate sub-partition or to the individualsecondary storage computing devices 106B-C for storage in theappropriate sub-partition. Similarly, the secondary storage computingdevice 106B can store original data in partition 408E (11) and storereplicated data in partitions 408B (12) and 408H (13) (or instruct thestorage manager 140 and/or the secondary storage computing devices 106Aand 106C to store the replicated data), and the secondary storagecomputing device 106C can store original data in partition 408I (14) andstore replicated data in partitions 408C (15) and 408F (16) (or instructthe storage manager 140 and/or the secondary storage computing devices106A-B to store the replicated data).

Data replication can occur in real-time (e.g., within a few seconds ofbeing configured by the storage manager 140). Alternatively or inaddition, data replication can occur off-line at a set or random time orin the background when one or more of the secondary storage computingdevices 106A-C is otherwise idle.

Thus, the secondary storage computing devices 106B-C can beautomatically configured for use by the storage manager 140 without anyuser input once the secondary storage computing devices 106B-C arephysically installed. Furthermore, the storage manager 140 can initiatethe reallocation of resources if one or more secondary storage computingdevices 106A-C (e.g., media agents 144A-C) become unavailable, asdescribed below with respect to FIGS. 5A through 6C.

FIG. 5A is a flow diagram depicting the unavailability of the secondarymedia agent 144B in the scalable information management system 100. Asillustrated in FIG. 5A, the media agent 144B is unavailable and cannotbe used to access the secondary storage device 108 and the data inpartitions 408D-F.

FIG. 5B is a flow diagram depicting the operations performed when thesecondary media agent 144B is unavailable. As illustrated in FIG. 5B, ifthe storage manager 140 receives a read or write request from a clientcomputing device 102 that normally would be forwarded to a control mediaagent and then to the secondary media agent 144B, the storage manager140 instead forwards the read or write request to another media agent(e.g., either control or secondary media agent) that is available. Forexample, the storage manager 140 can forward the read or write request(1) to the control media agent 144A. The control media agent 144A may ormay not access deduplication information (2) from the DDB database 210E(e.g., may access the deduplication information if the read requestcorresponds to a backup copy that includes deduplication links or thewrite request corresponds to data that includes duplicate blocks). Thecontrol media agent 144A may then use the deduplication information, ifaccessed, and complete the read or write request (3) by accessing thepartition 408B, which was previously allocated for replicated data ofthe now unavailable secondary media agent 144B. Thus, the control mediaagent 144A can function as the secondary media agent 144B, reading andwriting to data that is a mirror of data normally accessed by thesecondary media agent 144B in the secondary storage device 108.

FIG. 6A is a flow diagram depicting the unavailability of the controlmedia agent 144C in the scalable information management system 100. Asillustrated in FIG. 6A, the media agent 144C is unavailable and cannotbe used to access the secondary storage device 108 and the data inpartitions 408H-I. Similarly, the deduplication information stored inDDB database 210F is no longer available as well.

FIG. 6B is a flow diagram depicting the operations performed when thecontrol media agent 144C is unavailable. As illustrated in FIG. 6B, ifthe storage manager 140 receives a read or write request from a clientcomputing device 102 that normally would be forwarded to the controlmedia agent 144C, the storage manager 140 instead forwards the read orwrite request to another control media agent that is available. Forexample, the storage manager 140 can forward the read or write request(1) to the control media agent 144A. The control media agent 144A mayaccess the partition in the DDB database 210E that corresponds to thededuplication information originally stored in the DDB database 210F andretrieve such deduplication information. If deduplication information ofthe media agent 144C is not available in the DDB database 210E, thecontrol media agent 144A can rebuild the deduplication information usingthe data in the partition 408C. The control media agent 144A may thenuse the deduplication information and complete the read or write request(3) by accessing the partition 408C, which was previously allocated forreplicated data of the now unavailable control media agent 144C.Alternatively, the control media agent 144A can transmit the retrieveddeduplication information to a secondary media agent, and the secondarymedia agent can complete the read or write request. Thus, the controlmedia agent 144A can function as the control media agent 144C, readingand writing to data that is a mirror of data normally accessed by thecontrol media agent 144C in the secondary storage device 108 (orinstructing a secondary media agent to perform the reading and/orwriting).

FIG. 6C is another flow diagram depicting the operations performed whenthe control media agent 144C is unavailable. As illustrated in FIG. 6C,if the storage manager 140 receives a read or write request from aclient computing device 102 that normally would be forwarded to thecontrol media agent 144C, the storage manager 140 instead forwards theread or write request to another media agent that is available. Forexample, the storage manager 140 can forward the read or write request(1) to the secondary media agent 144B. Because the secondary media agent144B does not have access to deduplication information, the secondarymedia agent 144B can rebuild the deduplication information using thedata stored in the partition 408F. For example, the secondary mediaagent 144B can retrieve data stored in the partition 408F (2) andanalyze the data to identify links and/or duplicate blocks and rebuildthe deduplication information (3). The rebuilt deduplication informationcan be stored locally (e.g., in media agent database 152B) or in a DDBdatabase associated with another media agent 144. The secondary mediaagent 144B may then use the deduplication information and complete theread or write request (4) by accessing the partition 408F, which waspreviously allocated for replicated data of the now unavailable controlmedia agent 144C. Alternatively, the secondary media agent 144B cantransmit the retrieved deduplication information to another secondarymedia agent, and the other secondary media agent can complete the reador write request. Thus, the secondary media agent 144B can function asthe control media agent 144C, reading and writing to data that is amirror of data normally accessed by the control media agent 144C in thesecondary storage device 108 (or instructing another secondary mediaagent to perform the reading and/or writing).

Multiple File Systems for Minimizing Secondary Storage Computing DeviceFailures

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram depicting the file systems of the secondarystorage computing devices 160A-C in the scalable information managementsystem 100. In some embodiments, each partition allocated to a secondarystorage computing device (e.g., partitions represented by blocks 408A-C,which are allocated to the secondary storage computing device 106A asdepicted in FIG. 4D) forms a single file system or volume. While apartition may correspond to a single file system, the single file systemcan include multiple physical hard disks (e.g., each sub-partition maycorrespond to a different hard disk). However, because the multiple harddisks form a single file system, a failure of one hard disk can causethe file system to become corrupted and therefore the entire secondarystorage computing device to fail. Thus, it may be desirable to design afile system scheme in which a secondary storage computing device doesnot fail merely because a single hard disk failed.

Accordingly, each allocated partition may instead correspond to multiplefile systems. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 7, the secondarystorage computing device 106A has access to a partition in a secondarystorage device that has three sub-partitions represented by blocks 708A,710A, and 712A. The secondary storage computing device 106B has accessto a partition in the secondary storage device that has threesub-partitions represented by blocks 708B, 710B, and 712B. The secondarystorage computing device 106C has access to a partition in the secondarystorage device that has three sub-partitions represented by blocks 708C,710C, and 712C. Each sub-partition represented by blocks 708A-C, 710A-C,and 712A-C may be a separate hard disk. Furthermore, each sub-partitionrepresented by blocks 708A, 710A, and 712A may store data associatedwith the secondary storage computing device 106A, each sub-partitionrepresented by blocks 708B, 710B, and 712B may store data associatedwith the secondary storage computing device 106B, and each sub-partitionrepresented by blocks 708C, 710C, and 712C may store data associatedwith the secondary storage computing device 106C. Alternatively, eachsub-partition represented by blocks 708A-C, 710A-C, and 712A-C may storedata associated with some or all of the secondary storage computingdevices 106A-C.

Each of the hard disks corresponding to blocks 708A-C may collectivelyform a first file system, each of the hard disks corresponding to blocks710A-C may collectively form a second file system, and each of the harddisks corresponding to blocks 712A-C may collectively form a third filesystem. The storage manager 140 or the individual secondary storagecomputing devices 106A-C (independently or at the direction of thestorage manager 140) may perform parity replication such that each harddisk corresponding to a given file system stores some or all of the datastored on the other hard disks corresponding to the same file system.For example, the hard disk corresponding to block 708A may store some orall of the data stored on the hard disks corresponding to blocks 708B-Cafter the parity replication is performed (e.g., the hard diskscorresponding to blocks 708A-C may each store ⅓ of all writes to thefile system).

Thus, a secondary storage computing device 106 does not fail merelybecause one hard disk associated with the secondary storage computingdevice 106 fails. As an illustrative example, if the hard diskcorresponding to block 708A and a first file system fails, a read orwrite request intended for the first file system and/or the secondarystorage computing device 106A may be redirected to the secondary storagecomputing devices 106B-C because the secondary storage computing devices106B-C are associated with hard disks of the first file system (e.g.,represented by blocks 708B-C) that have not failed. The secondarystorage computing devices 106B-C can then process the read and/or writerequest. However, if a read or write request is received that isintended for a second file system and/or the secondary storage computingdevice 106A (e.g., corresponding to the hard disk represented by block710A), the read or write request would not have to be redirected toanother secondary storage computing device 106B-C. Rather, the read orwrite request could be handled by the hard disk represented by block710A, even if the hard disk represented by block 708A has failed,because the hard drive represented by block 710A has not failed andforms a part of the second file system.

Disk Failure Notification User Interface

FIG. 8 is a user interface 800 depicting a location of a disk failure.In an embodiment, a media agent 144 can run a service or application tocheck the status of one or more hard disks that are included in thesecondary storage device 108 and/or provide automatic reporting of thedetermined status. The service can determine the status of a volume orfile system (e.g., hard disks represented by blocks 708A-C in FIG. 7),the status of a sub-volume or sub-file system (e.g., some, but not all,of the hard disks represented by blocks 708A-C), and/or individual harddisks (e.g., the hard disk represented by block 708A).

For example, the service can be configured to transmit a write requestto a specific memory location in a hard disk. The service can thentransmit a read request to read the data that was just written to thememory location. If the read request returns data that matches the datainitially included in the write request, then the service may determinethat the hard disk is functioning properly. Otherwise, the service maydetermine that the hard disk will fail or has failed. In such asituation, the service can transmit a unique identifier identifying thehard disk (e.g., a serial number of the hard disk) to the storagemanager 140. The service may transmit the write and read requestmessages periodically to periodically check the status of the hard disk.

As another example, the hard drive can be configured with a service thatperforms a self-test. The self-test can include a test of the electricaland/or mechanical performance of the hard disk, such as a test of bufferrandom access memory (RAM), a read/write circuitry test, a test of theread/write head elements, seeking and servo on data tracks, a scan of aportion of or all of the disk surface, a conveyance test, and/or thelike. The service in the media agent 144 can be configured toperiodically instruct the hard disk to perform the self-test.Alternatively, the hard disk service can automatically periodicallyperform the self-test and report results to the media agent 144 service.If during the self-test the hard disk determines that a failure isimminent (e.g., a failure will happen within a certain time period, afailure will occur after a certain number of read/write requests arereceived, etc.) or that a failure has occurred, the hard disk servicecan transmit an alert to the media agent 144 service. In an embodiment,the alert includes the unique identifier of the hard disk (e.g., theserial number of the hard disk). The media agent 144 service can thennotify the storage manager 140 that the hard disk identified by theunique identifier is failing or has failed.

As described above, the storage manager 140 can include the managementdatabase 146. When a hard disk is installed as part of the secondarystorage device 108, a location of the hard disk (e.g., a bay and/or aslot in the bay at which the hard disk is placed) and the uniqueidentifier of the hard disk are stored in the management database 146.Thus, when the storage manager 140 receives a notification from themedia agent 144 that a hard disk identified by a certain uniqueidentifier is failing or has failed, the storage manager 140 can querythe management database 146 to identify a location of the hard disk. Thestorage manager 140 can then generate user interface data that causes auser interface rendered by a user device (e.g., a mobile phone, atablet, a laptop, a desktop, etc.) to display the location of thefailing or failed hard disk.

As an illustrative example, the user interface 800 can be rendered by auser device using user interface data generated and provided by thestorage manager 140. The user interface 800 can display a graphicalrepresentation of bays 810, 820, and 830, which may be bays in thesecondary storage device 108. Each bay 810, 820, and 830 may havevarious slots in which hard disks are located. The user interface 800may highlight one or more hard disks that are indicated as failing orhaving failed. For example, the hard disk located in slot 832 in the bay830 is shaded to indicate that the hard disk is failing or has failed.Optionally, the user interface 800 can include text that provides moreinformation about why the hard disk is failing or has failed, text thatinstructs a user to replace the hard disk, text identifying the locationof the failing or failed hard disk, and/or text providing otherinformation.

While the user interface 800 displays bays 810, 820, and 830 for asingle secondary storage device 108, this is not meant to be limiting.For example, the scalable information management system 100 can includemultiple pools, where each pool includes one or more secondary storagecomputing devices 106 and a secondary storage device 108 that providethe functionality described herein. The user interface 800 cangraphically display the locations of bays and hard disks correspondingto multiple pools in the scalable information management system 100. Thelocations of bay and hard disks corresponding to multiple pools can bedisplayed in the same window, in different windows, and/or accessedindividually via a menu presented in the user interface 800.

Using the user interface 800, a user can more easily identify thelocation of a failing or failed hard disk and replace this hard diskwith a new hard disk. When a new hard disk is swapped into the locationof the failing or failed hard disk, the user interface 800 may no longerhighlight the slot (e.g., slot 832) as the location of a failing orfailed hard disk. In addition, upon detection of the insertion of thenew hard disk, the storage manager 140 may automatically instruct theappropriate secondary storage computing device 106 to format the harddisk and set up the hard disk for use (e.g., perform a repair operation,replicate data for storage on the hard disk, associate the hard diskwith a particular file system, etc.).

Process for Automatically Configuring a New Media Agent

FIG. 9 shows a flow diagram illustrative of embodiments of a routine 900implemented by the storage manager 140 for automatically configuring anew media agent. The elements outlined for routine 900 may beimplemented by one or more components that are associated with thestorage manager 140. For example, routine 900 can be implemented by anyone, or a combination of the operating system of the storage manager140, an application running on the storage manager 140, and the like.Accordingly, routine 900 has been logically associated as beinggenerally performed by the storage manager 140, and thus the followingillustrative embodiment should not construed as limiting.

At block 902, the routine 900 detects that a second secondary storagecomputing device is installed. The routine 900 may make the detectionafter a first secondary storage computing device that manages first datain the secondary storage device has already been installed.

At block 904, the routine 900 determines whether a media agent of thesecond secondary storage computing device is a control media agent or asecondary media agent. For example, the routine 900 makes thedetermination based on the computing resources available to the secondsecondary storage computing device (e.g., whether the second secondarystorage computing device has sufficient memory available to manage adeduplication database). Whether the media agent is a control mediaagent or a secondary media agent may determine whether the secondsecondary storage computing device is used to manage deduplicationinformation or is used to use provided deduplication information toprocess read and/or write requests.

At block 906, the routine 900 partitions the secondary storage devicesuch that a first portion of the secondary storage device is assigned tothe first secondary storage computing device and a second portion of thesecondary storage device is assigned to the second secondary storagecomputing device. Each partition may be further partitioned such thateach sub-partition corresponds to the original data of the respectivesecondary storage computing device or replicated data of the othersecondary storage computing devices.

At block 908, the routine 900 instructs the first secondary storagecomputing device to replicate the first data and transmit the replicatedfirst data to the second secondary storage computing device for storagein the second portion of the secondary storage device. Alternatively,the routine 900 can instruct the first secondary storage computingdevice to directly store the replicated first data in the secondportion.

In further embodiments, if the second secondary storage computing devicebecomes unavailable, the routine 900 can instruct another secondarystorage computing device to act as the media agent of the secondsecondary storage computing device. This may be possible because theother secondary storage computing devices may have access to replicatedforms of the data normally managed by the secondary storage computingdevice.

In regard to the figures described herein, other embodiments arepossible within the scope of the present invention, such that theabove-recited components, steps, blocks, operations, and/ormessages/requests/queries/instructions are differently arranged,sequenced, sub-divided, organized, and/or combined. In some embodiments,a different component may initiate or execute a given operation. Forexample, in some embodiments, the control media agents can directlyprocess the read and/or write requests, thereby bypassing the secondarymedia agents.

Process for Redirecting I/O Requests when a Media Agent Fails

FIG. 10 shows a flow diagram illustrative of embodiments of a routine1000 implemented by the storage manager 140 for redirecting input/output(I/O) requests intended for a first media agent to a second media agentwhen the first media agent fails. The elements outlined for routine 900may be implemented by one or more components that are associated withthe storage manager 140. For example, routine 1000 can be implemented byany one, or a combination of the operating system of the storage manager140, an application running on the storage manager 140, and the like.Accordingly, routine 1000 has been logically associated as beinggenerally performed by the storage manager 140, and thus the followingillustrative embodiment should not construed as limiting.

At block 1002, the routine 1000 detects that a first secondary storagecomputing device has failed. The routine 1000 may make the detectionbased on an inability to contact the first secondary storage computingdevice.

At block 1004, the routine 1000 redirects an I/O request intended forthe first secondary storage computing device to a second secondarystorage computing device. The I/O request can correspond to first datathat is stored in a first partition of the secondary storage device 108accessible by the first secondary storage computing device. The firstdata may have been replicated at a previous time and the replicated datamay have been stored in a second partition of the secondary storagedevice 108 accessible by the second secondary storage computing device.For example, the second partition can include a first sub-partition thatstores data associated with the second secondary storage computingdevice and a second sub-partition that stores data associated with thefirst secondary storage computing device.

At block 1006, the routine 1000 receives an indication that the I/Orequest is performed using a second sub-partition of a second partitionof the secondary storage device. For example, the second secondarystorage computing device can perform the I/O request in place of thefirst secondary storage computing device.

Process for Automatically Replicating Deduplication Data for a New MediaAgent

FIG. 11 shows a flow diagram illustrative of embodiments of a routine1100 implemented by the storage manager 140 for replicatingdeduplication data when a new media agent is added so that thereplicated deduplication data can be used to process I/O requests when amedia agent fails. The elements outlined for routine 1100 may beimplemented by one or more components that are associated with thestorage manager 140. For example, routine 1100 can be implemented by anyone, or a combination of the operating system of the storage manager140, an application running on the storage manager 140, and the like.Accordingly, routine 1100 has been logically associated as beinggenerally performed by the storage manager 140, and thus the followingillustrative embodiment should not construed as limiting.

At block 1102, the routine 1100 detects that a second secondary storagecomputing device is installed. The routine 1100 may make the detectionafter a first secondary storage computing device that manages first datain the secondary storage device has already been installed.

At block 1104, the routine 1100 partitions the secondary storage devicesuch that a first portion of the secondary storage device is assigned tothe first secondary storage computing device and a second portion of thesecondary storage device is assigned to the second secondary storagecomputing device. Each partition may be further partitioned such thateach sub-partition corresponds to the original data of the respectivesecondary storage computing device or replicated data of the othersecondary storage computing devices. Alternatively, the routine 1100 caninstruct one or more of the secondary storage computing devices tocomplete the partition.

At block 1106, the routine 1100 instructs the first secondary storagecomputing device to replicate first deduplication data and transmit thereplicated first deduplication data to the second secondary storagecomputing device for use in performing I/O requests on data in thesecond portion. For example, if the first secondary storage computingdevice fails, the second secondary storage computing device can use thereplicated deduplication data to perform I/O requests originallyintended for the first secondary storage computing device.

Process for Rebuilding Deduplication Data to Perform I/O Requests

FIG. 12 shows a flow diagram illustrative of embodiments of a routine1200 implemented by the media agent 144 for rebuilding deduplicationdata associated with a first media agent when the first media agentfails so that I/O requests intended for the first media agent can beprocessed by a second media agent. The elements outlined for routine1200 may be implemented by one or more components that are associatedwith the media agent 144. Accordingly, routine 1200 has been logicallyassociated as being generally performed by the media agent 144, and thusthe following illustrative embodiment should not construed as limiting.

At block 1202, the routine 1200 receives an I/O request intended for afirst secondary storage computing device that has failed. The routine1200 may detect that the first secondary storage computing device hasfailed based on an inability to contact the first secondary storagecomputing device.

At block 1204, the routine 1200 determines that deduplication dataassociated with the first secondary storage computing device is notavailable. For example, the deduplication data may not be availablebecause the media agent 144 is a secondary media agent and not a controlmedia agent (and thus the media agent 144 does not have a correspondingDDB database 210).

At block 1206, the routine 1200 accesses first data stored in a firstportion of a second partition of a secondary storage device. Forexample, the first portion of the second partition of the secondarystorage device is allocated for storing data associated with the firstsecondary storage computing device. Thus, the first data is associatedwith the first secondary storage computing device.

At block 1208, the routine 1200 reconstructs the deduplication datausing the accessed first data. For example, deduplication data caninclude data block signatures, the location information of data blocksstored in the secondary storage device 108, a count value indicative ofthe number of instances that a particular block is used, and/or thelike. The routine 1200 can parse the first data to identify data blocksand links or references to data blocks (e.g., the links or referencesmay have been previously inserted into the first data to replaceduplicate data blocks). The routine 1200 can then generate signaturesfor the identified data blocks (e.g., generates hash values for theidentified data blocks) and populate a partition of the DDB database 210allocated to the first secondary storage computing device with thegenerated data block signatures and the location of each data block inthe secondary storage device 108. The routine 1200 can further use thelinks or references to data blocks to identify a number of times that aparticular data block is used in the first data (e.g., if there are 3links to a first data block, then the first data block is used 4 timesgiven that the 3 links replaced duplicates of the first data block andthe 3 links each point to a copy of the first data block in the firstdata). The routine 1200 can then also store the identified number oftimes that a particular data block is used in the partition of the DDBdatabase 210 allocated to the first secondary storage computing device.

At block 1210, the routine 1200 performs the I/O request using thereconstructed deduplication data and the accessed first data. Forexample, if the I/O request is a write request, the write request mayspecify a data block to write to the secondary storage device 108. Theroutine 1200 can generate a signature of the data block (e.g., generatea hash) and compare the generated signature to the generated signaturesin the reconstructed deduplication data. If there is a match, then theroutine 1200 identifies the location of the data block corresponding tothe matching signature, replaces the data block with a link to theidentified location, increments a count of a number of times that thedata block is used, and stores the link in the secondary storage device108 to complete the request. As another example, if the I/O request is aread request, the result of the read request may be data blocks andlinks. The routine 1200 can replace the links with data blocks stored atthe locations pointed to by the links and forward the data blocks andthe data blocks replacing the links to the device that provided the readrequest.

Process for Using Multiple File Systems

FIG. 13 shows a flow diagram illustrative of embodiments of a routine1300 implemented by the storage manager 140 for managing I/O requestswhen a disk of a media agent fails. The elements outlined for routine1300 may be implemented by one or more components that are associatedwith the storage manager 140. For example, routine 1300 can beimplemented by any one, or a combination of the operating system of thestorage manager 140, an application running on the storage manager 140,and the like. Accordingly, routine 1300 has been logically associated asbeing generally performed by the storage manager 140, and thus thefollowing illustrative embodiment should not construed as limiting.

At block 1302, the routine 1300 detects that a first data storagecomputer is installed. For example, a second and third data storagecomputer may have been previously installed. The second data storagecomputer may manage a first secondary storage device that includes afirst hard disk and a second hard disk. The third data storage computermay manage a second secondary storage device that includes a third harddisk and a fourth hard disk. The first data storage computer may managea third secondary storage device that includes a fifth hard disk and asixth hard disk.

At block 1304, the routine 1300 associates the first hard disk, thethird hard disk, and the fifth hard disk such that the first hard disk,the third hard disk, and the fifth hard disk together store data for afirst file system. The routine 1300 may further perform a parityreplication on the first, third, and fifth hard disks.

At block 1306, the routine 1300 associates the second hard disk, thefourth hard disk, and the sixth hard disk such that the second harddisk, the fourth hard disk, and the sixth hard disk together store datafor a second file system. The routine 1300 may further perform a parityreplication on the second, fourth, and sixth hard disks. In anembodiment, the second data storage computer may continue to receive I/Orequests for the second hard disk even after a failure of the first harddisk given that each hard disk is associated with a different filesystem. Furthermore, the third and/or fifth hard disks may be able toservice any I/O requests intended for the first hard disk given theparity replication.

Process for Displaying User Interface Depicting Failing Disks

FIG. 14 shows a flow diagram illustrative of embodiments of a routine1400 implemented by the storage manager 140 for generating a userinterface that displays a location of a failing secondary storage devicedisk. The elements outlined for routine 1400 may be implemented by oneor more components that are associated with the storage manager 140. Forexample, routine 1400 can be implemented by any one, or a combination ofthe operating system of the storage manager 140, an application runningon the storage manager 140, and the like. Accordingly, routine 1400 hasbeen logically associated as being generally performed by the storagemanager 140, and thus the following illustrative embodiment should notconstrued as limiting.

At block 1402, the routine 1400 receives an indication that a disk of afirst secondary storage device is failing and a unique identifierassociated with the disk of the first secondary storage device. Theroutine 1400 may receive the indication from a media agent 144 thatperiodically monitors the health status of disks in the secondarystorage device 108.

At block 1404, the routine 1400 identifies a location of the disk of thefirst secondary storage device based on the unique identifier. Forexample, the management database 146 may store the unique identifiers ofdisks in secondary storage devices and location of such disks.

At block 1406, the routine 1400 generates user interface data thatcauses a user device to display a user interface depicting a location ofthe disk of the first secondary storage device. For example, the userinterface can graphically indicate a bay and a slot in the bay in whichthe disk of the first secondary storage device is located.

Example Embodiments

One aspect of the disclosure provides a networked information managementsystem configured to automatically configure installed data storagecomputers. The networked information management system comprises: afirst data storage computer comprising computer hardware, where thefirst data storage computer is a first control node configured to managefirst deduplication information stored in a first deduplication databaseand direct read and write requests to secondary nodes, and where thefirst data storage computer manages first data in a secondary storagedevice; a second data storage computer comprising computer hardware,where the second data storage computer is installed in the networkedinformation management system after the first data storage computer; anda storage manager comprising computer hardware configured to: detectthat the second data storage computer is installed in the networkedinformation management system, determine whether the second data storagecomputer is a second control node or a first secondary node based oncomputing resources available to the second data storage computer,partition the secondary storage device such that a first portion of thesecondary storage device is assigned to the first data storage computerand a second portion of the secondary storage device is assigned to thesecond data storage computer, and instruct the first data storagecomputer to replicate the first data and transmit the replicated firstdata to the second data storage computer for storage in the secondportion of the secondary storage device.

The networked information management system of the preceding paragraphcan have any sub-combination of the following features: where the firstdata storage computer is configured with a deduplication policy and astorage policy, and where the storage manager is further configured toconfigure the second data storage computer with the deduplication policyand the storage policy; where the second data storage computer is thesecond control node, and where the storage manager is further configuredto instruct the first data storage computer to replicate the firstdeduplication information and transmit the replicated firstdeduplication information to the second data storage computer forstorage in a second deduplication database; where the networkedinformation management system further comprises a third data storagecomputer comprising computer hardware, where the third data storagecomputer is a second secondary node, where a third portion of thesecondary storage device is assigned to the third data storage computer,and where the third portion comprises the replicated first data andreplicated second data corresponding to the second data storagecomputer; where the second data storage computer is the first secondarynode, where the second data storage computer is unavailable, and wherethe storage manager is further configured to: receive a read requestintended for the second data storage computer, and transmit the readrequest to the first data storage computer, where the first data storagecomputer routes the read request to the third data storage computerinstead of the second data storage computer such that the third datastorage computer can retrieve a portion of the replicated second datathat corresponds with the read request; and where the second portion ofthe secondary storage device comprises a third portion allocated to thefirst data storage computer and a fourth portion allocated to the seconddata storage computer, and wherein the replicated first data is storedin the third portion.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a computer-implemented methodfor automatically configuring installed data storage computers. Thecomputer-implemented method comprises: detecting that a first datastorage computer is installed in a networked information managementsystem, wherein the first data storage computer is a first control nodeconfigured to manage first deduplication information stored in a firstdeduplication database and direct read and write requests to secondarynodes, and wherein the first data storage computer manages first data ina secondary storage device; detecting that a second data storagecomputer is installed in the networked information management system,wherein the second data storage computer is installed in the networkedinformation management system after the first data storage computer;determining whether the second data storage computer is a second controlnode or a first secondary node based on computing resources available tothe second data storage computer; partitioning the secondary storagedevice such that a first portion of the secondary storage device isassigned to the first data storage computer and a second portion of thesecondary storage device is assigned to the second data storagecomputer; and instructing the first data storage computer to replicatethe first data and transmit the replicated first data to the second datastorage computer for storage in the second portion of the secondarystorage device.

The computer-implemented method of the preceding paragraph can includeany sub-combination of the following features: where the first datastorage computer is configured with a deduplication policy and a storagepolicy, and wherein the computer-implemented method further comprisesconfiguring the second data storage computer with the deduplicationpolicy and the storage policy; where the second data storage computer isthe second control node, and wherein the computer-implemented methodfurther comprises instructing the first data storage computer toreplicate the first deduplication information and transmit thereplicated first deduplication information to the second data storagecomputer for storage in a second deduplication database; where thesecond deduplication database comprises a third portion allocated to thefirst data storage computer and a fourth portion allocated to the seconddata storage computer, and wherein the replicated first deduplicationinformation is stored in the third portion of the second deduplicationdatabase; where the replicated first deduplication information comprisesat least one of a data block signature, a storage location of a datablock, or a count of a number of times the data block is used; where athird data storage computer is a second secondary node, wherein a thirdportion of the secondary storage device is assigned to the third datastorage computer, and wherein the third portion comprises the replicatedfirst data and replicated second data corresponding to the second datastorage computer; where the second data storage computer is the firstsecondary node, wherein the second data storage computer is unavailable,and wherein the computer-implemented method further comprises: receivinga read request intended for the second data storage computer, andtransmitting the read request to the first data storage computer,wherein the first data storage computer routes the read request to thethird data storage computer instead of the second data storage computersuch that the third data storage computer can retrieve a portion of thereplicated second data that corresponds with the read request; and wherethe second portion of the secondary storage device comprises a thirdportion allocated to the first data storage computer and a fourthportion allocated to the second data storage computer, and wherein thereplicated first data is stored in the third portion.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a networked informationmanagement system configured to automatically configure installed datastorage computers. The networked information management systemcomprises: a first data storage computer comprising computer hardware,wherein the first data storage computer is a first control nodeconfigured to manage first deduplication information stored in a firstdeduplication database and direct read and write requests to secondarynodes, and wherein the first data storage computer manages first data ina secondary storage device; a second data storage computer comprisingcomputer hardware; and a storage manager comprising computer hardwareconfigured to: detect that the second data storage computer is installedin the networked information management system, determine that thesecond data storage computer is a second control node based on computingresources available to the second data storage computer, partition thesecondary storage device such that a first portion of the secondarystorage device is assigned to the first data storage computer and asecond portion of the secondary storage device is assigned to the seconddata storage computer, instruct the first data storage computer toreplicate the first data, receive the replicated first data, andtransmit the replicated first data to the second data storage computerfor storage in the second portion of the secondary storage device.

The networked information management system of the preceding paragraphcan include any sub-combination of the following features: where thefirst data storage computer is configured with a deduplication policyand a storage policy, and wherein the storage manager is furtherconfigured to configure the second data storage computer with thededuplication policy and the storage policy; the storage manager isfurther configured to: instruct the first data storage computer toreplicate the first deduplication information, receive the replicatedfirst deduplication information, and transmit the replicated firstdeduplication information to the second data storage computer forstorage in a second deduplication database; and where the seconddeduplication database comprises a third portion allocated to the firstdata storage computer and a fourth portion allocated to the second datastorage computer, and wherein the replicated first deduplicationinformation is stored in the third portion of the second deduplicationdatabase.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a networked informationmanagement system configured to automatically configure installed datastorage computers. The networked information management systemcomprises: a first data storage computer comprising computer hardware,wherein the first data storage computer is configured to processinput/output (I/O) requests corresponding to first data, wherein thefirst data is stored in a first partition of a secondary storage device,wherein a replication of second data is stored in a second partition ofthe secondary storage device, and wherein the first data storagecomputer is further configured to access the first data stored in thefirst partition and the replication of the second data stored in thesecond partition; a second data storage computer comprising computerhardware, wherein the second data storage computer is configured toprocess I/O requests corresponding to the second data, wherein areplication of the first data is stored in a third partition of thesecondary storage device, wherein the second data is stored in a fourthpartition of the secondary storage device, and wherein the second datastorage computer is further configured to access the replication of thefirst data stored in the third partition and the second data stored inthe fourth partition; and a storage manager comprising computer hardwareconfigured to: detect that the second data storage computer has failed,receive a first I/O request corresponding to the second data, and sendthe first I/O request to the first data storage computer in place of thesecond data storage computer in response to detecting that the seconddata storage computer has failed, wherein the first data storagecomputer is configured to process the first I/O request using thereplication of the second data stored in the second partition.

The networked information management system of the preceding paragraphcan include any sub-combination of the following features: where thefirst I/O request is a read request; where the first data storagecomputer is further configured to retrieve a portion of the replicationof the second data stored in the second partition corresponding to theread request; where the first I/O request is a write request thatcomprises a first data block; where the first data storage computer isfurther configured to write the first data block to the second partitionfor inclusion in the replication of the second data; where the firstdata storage computer is further configured to process the first I/Orequest using the replication of the second data and a replication ofdeduplication information associated with the second data storagecomputer; where the replication of the deduplication informationcomprises at least one of a data block signature, a storage location ofa data block, or a count of a number of times the data block is used;and where the first data storage computer is not configured to accessthe second data stored in the fourth partition.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a computer-implemented methodfor automatically configuring installed data storage computers. Thecomputer-implemented method comprises: determining a presence of a firstdata storage computer and a second data storage computer, wherein thefirst data storage computer is configured to process input/output (I/O)requests corresponding to first data, wherein the first data is storedin a first partition of a secondary storage device, wherein areplication of second data is stored in a second partition of thesecondary storage device, and wherein the first data storage computer isfurther configured to access the first data stored in the firstpartition and the replication of the second data stored in the secondpartition; detecting that the second data storage computer has failed,wherein the second data storage computer is configured to process I/Orequests corresponding to the second data, wherein a replication of thefirst data is stored in a third partition of the secondary storagedevice, wherein the second data is stored in a fourth partition of thesecondary storage device, and wherein the second data storage computeris further configured to access the replication of the first data storedin the third partition and the second data stored in the fourthpartition; receiving a first I/O request corresponding to the seconddata; and sending the first I/O request to the first data storagecomputer in place of the second data storage computer in response todetecting that the second data storage computer has failed in a mannerthat causes the first data storage computer to process the first I/Orequest using the replication of the second data stored in the secondpartition.

The computer-implemented method of the preceding paragraph can includeany sub-combination of the following features: where the first I/Orequest is a read request; where sending the first I/O request to thefirst data storage computer further comprises sending the first I/Orequest to the first data storage computer in a manner that causes thefirst data storage computer to access a portion of the replication ofthe second data stored in the second partition corresponding to the readrequest; where the first I/O request is a write request that comprises afirst data block; where sending the first I/O request to the first datastorage computer further comprises sending the first I/O request to thefirst data storage computer in a manner that causes the first datastorage computer to write the first data block to the second partitionfor inclusion in the replication of the second data; where sending thefirst I/O request to the first data storage computer further comprisessending the first I/O request to the first data storage computer in amanner that causes the first data storage computer to process the firstI/O request using the replication of the second data and a replicationof deduplication information associated with the second data storagecomputer; where the replication of the deduplication informationcomprises at least one of a data block signature, a storage location ofa data block, or a count of a number of times the data block is used;and where the first data storage computer is not configured to accessthe second data stored in the fourth partition.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a networked informationmanagement system configured to automatically configure installed datastorage computers. The networked information management systemcomprises: a first data storage computer comprising computer hardware,wherein the first data storage computer is configured to processinput/output (I/O) requests corresponding to first data, wherein thefirst data is stored in a first partition of a secondary storage device,wherein a replication of second data is stored in a second partition ofthe secondary storage device, and wherein the first data storagecomputer is further configured to access the first partition and thesecond partition; a second data storage computer comprising computerhardware, wherein the second data storage computer is configured toprocess I/O requests corresponding to the second data, wherein areplication of the first data is stored in a third partition of thesecondary storage device, wherein the second data is stored in a fourthpartition of the secondary storage device, and wherein the second datastorage computer is further configured to access the third partition andthe fourth partition; and a storage manager comprising computer hardwareconfigured to: detect that the second data storage computer has failed,and send a first I/O request corresponding to the second data to thefirst data storage computer in place of the second data storage computerin response to detecting that the second data storage computer hasfailed, wherein the first data storage computer is configured to processthe first I/O request using the replication of the second data stored inthe second partition.

The networked information management system of the preceding paragraphcan include any sub-combination of the following features: where thefirst data storage computer is further configured to process the firstI/O request using the replication of the second data and a replicationof deduplication information associated with the second data storagecomputer; where the replication of the deduplication informationcomprises at least one of a data block signature, a storage location ofa data block, or a count of a number of times the data block is used;and where the first data storage computer is not configured to accessthe second data stored in the fourth partition.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a networked informationmanagement system configured to automatically configure installed datastorage computers. The networked information management systemcomprises: a first data storage computer comprising computer hardware,wherein the first data storage computer is configured to manage firstdeduplication information stored in a first deduplication database,wherein the first data storage computer is configured to processinput/output (I/O) requests corresponding to first data, wherein thefirst data is stored in a first partition of a secondary storage device,wherein a replication of second data is stored in a second partition ofthe secondary storage device, and wherein the first data storagecomputer is further configured to access the first data stored in thefirst partition and the replication of the second data stored in thesecond partition; a second data storage computer comprising computerhardware, wherein the second data storage computer is configured toprocess I/O requests corresponding to the second data, wherein areplication of the first data is stored in a third partition of thesecondary storage device, wherein the second data is stored in a fourthpartition of the secondary storage device, and wherein the second datastorage computer is further configured to access the replication of thefirst data stored in the third partition and the second data stored inthe fourth partition; and a storage manager comprising computer hardwareconfigured to: detect that the second data storage computer is installedin the networked information management system, instruct the first datastorage computer to replicate the first deduplication information andtransmit the replicated first deduplication information to the seconddata storage computer for storage in a second deduplication database,detect that the first data storage computer has failed, receive a firstI/O request corresponding to the first data, and send the first I/Orequest to the second data storage computer in place of the first datastorage computer in response to detecting that the first data storagecomputer has failed, wherein the second data storage computer isconfigured to process the first I/O request using at least one of thereplication of the first data stored in the third partition or thereplicated first deduplication information stored in the seconddeduplication database.

The networked information management system of the preceding paragraphcan include any sub-combination of the following features: where thefirst I/O request is a read request; where the second data storagecomputer is further configured to retrieve a portion of the replicationof the first data stored in the third partition corresponding to theread request; where the first I/O request is a write request thatcomprises a first data block; where the second data storage computer isfurther configured to: determine that the first data block is aduplicate of another data block included in the replication of the firstdata using the replicated first deduplication information, replace thefirst data block with a link to the another data block, and write thelink to the third partition; where the replicated first deduplicationinformation comprises at least one of a data block signature, a storagelocation of a data block, or a count of a number of times the data blockis used; where the second data storage computer is not configured toaccess the first data stored in the first partition; and where thesecond deduplication database comprises a fifth partition and a sixthpartition, and wherein the replicated first deduplication information isstored in the fifth partition and second deduplication informationcorresponding to the second data storage computer is stored in the sixthpartition.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a computer-implemented methodfor automatically configuring installed data storage computers. Thecomputer-implemented method comprises: determining a presence of a firstdata storage computer, wherein the first data storage computer isconfigured to manage first deduplication information stored in a firstdeduplication database, wherein the first data storage computer isconfigured to process input/output (I/O) requests corresponding to firstdata, wherein the first data is stored in a first partition of asecondary storage device, wherein a replication of second data is storedin a second partition of the secondary storage device, and wherein thefirst data storage computer is further configured to access the firstdata stored in the first partition and the replication of the seconddata stored in the second partition; detecting that a second datastorage computer is installed, wherein the second data storage computeris configured to process I/O requests corresponding to the second data,wherein a replication of the first data is stored in a third partitionof the secondary storage device, wherein the second data is stored in afourth partition of the secondary storage device, and wherein the seconddata storage computer is further configured to access the replication ofthe first data stored in the third partition and the second data storedin the fourth partition; instructing the first data storage computer toreplicate the first deduplication information and transmit thereplicated first deduplication information to the second data storagecomputer for storage in a second deduplication database; detecting thatthe first data storage computer has failed; receiving a first I/Orequest corresponding to the first data; and sending the first I/Orequest to the second data storage computer in place of the first datastorage computer in response to detecting that the first data storagecomputer has failed in a manner that causes the second data storagecomputer to process the first I/O request using at least one of thereplication of the first data stored in the third partition or thereplicated first deduplication information stored in the seconddeduplication database.

The computer-implemented method of the preceding paragraph can includeany sub-combination of the following features: where the first I/Orequest is a read request; where sending the first I/O request to thesecond data storage computer further comprises sending the first I/Orequest to the second data storage computer in a manner that causes thesecond data storage computer to retrieve a portion of the replication ofthe first data stored in the third partition corresponding to the readrequest; where the first I/O request is a write request that comprises afirst data block; where sending the first I/O request to the second datastorage computer further comprises sending the first I/O request to thesecond data storage computer in a manner that causes the second datastorage computer to: determine that the first data block is a duplicateof another data block included in the replication of the first datausing the replicated first deduplication information, replace the firstdata block with a link to the another data block, and write the link tothe third partition; where the replicated first deduplicationinformation comprises at least one of a data block signature, a storagelocation of a data block, or a count of a number of times the data blockis used; where the second data storage computer is not configured toaccess the first data stored in the first partition; and where thesecond deduplication database comprises a fifth partition and a sixthpartition, and wherein the replicated first deduplication information isstored in the fifth partition and second deduplication informationcorresponding to the second data storage computer is stored in the sixthpartition.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a networked informationmanagement system configured to automatically configure installed datastorage computers. The networked information management systemcomprises: a first data storage computer comprising computer hardware,wherein the first data storage computer is configured to manage firstdeduplication information stored in a first deduplication database,wherein the first data storage computer is configured to processinput/output (I/O) requests corresponding to first data, wherein thefirst data is stored in a first partition of a secondary storage device,wherein a replication of second data is stored in a second partition ofthe secondary storage device, and wherein the first data storagecomputer is further configured to access the first partition and thesecond partition; a second data storage computer comprising computerhardware, wherein the second data storage computer is configured toprocess I/O requests corresponding to the second data, wherein areplication of the first data is stored in a third partition of thesecondary storage device, wherein the second data is stored in a fourthpartition of the secondary storage device, and wherein the second datastorage computer is further configured to access the third partition andthe fourth partition; and a storage manager comprising computer hardwareconfigured to: detect that the second data storage computer is installedin the networked information management system, instruct the first datastorage computer to replicate the first deduplication information andtransmit the replicated first deduplication information to the seconddata storage computer for storage in a second deduplication database,detect that the first data storage computer has failed, and send a firstI/O request corresponding to the first data to the second data storagecomputer in place of the first data storage computer in response todetecting that the first data storage computer has failed, wherein thesecond data storage computer is configured to process the first I/Orequest using at least one of the replication of the first data storedin the third partition or the replicated first deduplication informationstored in the second deduplication database.

The networked information management system of the preceding paragraphcan include any sub-combination of the following features: where thefirst I/O request is a write request that comprises a first data block;where the second data storage computer is further configured to:determine that the first data block is a duplicate of another data blockincluded in the replication of the first data using the replicated firstdeduplication information, replace the first data block with a link tothe another data block, and write the link to the third partition; andwhere the second data storage computer is not configured to access thefirst data stored in the first partition.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a networked informationmanagement system configured to automatically configure installed datastorage computers. The networked information management systemcomprises: a first data storage computer comprising computer hardware,wherein the first data storage computer is configured to manage firstdeduplication information stored in a first deduplication database,wherein the first data storage computer is configured to processinput/output (I/O) requests corresponding to first data, wherein thefirst data is stored in a first partition of a secondary storage device,wherein a replication of second data is stored in a second partition ofthe secondary storage device, and wherein the first data storagecomputer is further configured to access the first data stored in thefirst partition and the replication of the second data stored in thesecond partition; a second data storage computer comprising computerhardware, wherein the second data storage computer is configured toprocess I/O requests corresponding to the second data, wherein areplication of the first data is stored in a third partition of thesecondary storage device, wherein the second data is stored in a fourthpartition of the secondary storage device, and wherein the second datastorage computer is further configured to access the replication of thefirst data stored in the third partition and the second data stored inthe fourth partition; and a storage manager comprising computer hardwareconfigured to: detect that the first data storage computer has failed,receive a first I/O request corresponding to the first data, instructthe second data storage computer to reconstruct the first deduplicationinformation using the replication of the first data stored in the thirdpartition, and send the first I/O request to the second data storagecomputer in place of the first data storage computer in response todetecting that the first data storage computer has failed, wherein thesecond data storage computer is configured to process the first I/Orequest using at least one of the replication of the first data storedin the third partition or the reconstructed first deduplicationinformation.

The networked information management system of the preceding paragraphcan include any sub-combination of the following features: where thefirst I/O request is a read request; where the second data storagecomputer is further configured to retrieve a portion of the replicationof the first data stored in the third partition corresponding to theread request; where the first I/O request is a write request thatcomprises a first data block; where the second data storage computer isfurther configured to: determine that the first data block is aduplicate of another data block included in the replication of the firstdata using the reconstructed first deduplication information, replacethe first data block with a link to the another data block, and writethe link to the third partition; where the reconstructed firstdeduplication information comprises at least one of a data blocksignature, a storage location of a data block, or a count of a number oftimes the data block is used; where the second data storage computer isnot configured to access the first data stored in the first partition;where the second data storage computer is configured to: retrieve thereplication of the first data stored in the third partition, parse thereplication of the first data to identify a first data block and a firstlink, generate a signature for the first data block, store the signatureof the first data block and a storage location of the first data blockin the third partition in a second deduplication database, identify anumber of times the first data block is used using the first link, andstore the number of times the first data block is used in the seconddeduplication database; where the first I/O request is a write requestthat comprises a second data block, and wherein the second data storagecomputer is configured to: generate a signature of the second datablock, compare the signature of the second data block with the signatureof the first data block, and store the second data block in the thirdpartition in response to a determination that the signature of thesecond data block does not match the signature of the first data block;and where the first I/O request is a write request that comprises asecond data block, and wherein the second data storage computer isconfigured to: generate a signature of the second data block, comparethe signature of the second data block with the signature of the firstdata block, and store a link to the first data block in the thirdpartition in place of the second data block in response to adetermination that the signature of the second data block matches thesignature of the first data block.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a computer-implemented methodfor automatically configuring installed data storage computers. Thecomputer-implemented method comprises: detecting a presence of a firstdata storage computer and a second data storage computer, wherein thefirst data storage computer is configured to manage first deduplicationinformation stored in a first deduplication database, wherein the firstdata storage computer is configured to process input/output (I/O)requests corresponding to first data, wherein the first data is storedin a first partition of a secondary storage device, wherein areplication of second data is stored in a second partition of thesecondary storage device, and wherein the first data storage computer isfurther configured to access the first partition and the secondpartition, where the second data storage computer is configured toprocess I/O requests corresponding to the second data, wherein areplication of the first data is stored in a third partition of thesecondary storage device, wherein the second data is stored in a fourthpartition of the secondary storage device, and wherein the second datastorage computer is further configured to access the third partition andthe fourth partition; detecting that the first data storage computer hasfailed; receiving a first I/O request corresponding to the first data;instructing the second data storage computer to reconstruct the firstdeduplication information using the replication of the first data storedin the third partition; and sending the first I/O request to the seconddata storage computer in place of the first data storage computer inresponse to detecting that the first data storage computer has failed ina manner that causes the second data storage computer to process thefirst I/O request using at least one of the replication of the firstdata stored in the third partition or the reconstructed firstdeduplication information.

The computer-implemented method of the preceding paragraph can includeany sub-combination of the following features: where the first I/Orequest is a read request; where sending the first I/O request to thesecond data storage computer further comprises sending the first I/Orequest to the second data storage computer in a manner that causes thesecond data storage computer to retrieve a portion of the replication ofthe first data stored in the third partition corresponding to the readrequest; where the first I/O request is a write request that comprises afirst data block; where sending the first I/O request to the second datastorage computer further comprises sending the first I/O request to thesecond data storage computer in a manner that causes the second datastorage computer to: determine that the first data block is a duplicateof another data block included in the replication of the first datausing the reconstructed first deduplication information, replace thefirst data block with a link to the another data block, and write thelink to the third partition; where the reconstructed first deduplicationinformation comprises at least one of a data block signature, a storagelocation of a data block, or a count of a number of times the data blockis used; where the second data storage computer is not configured toaccess the first data stored in the first partition; where instructingthe second data storage computer to reconstruct the first deduplicationinformation further comprises instructing the second data storagecomputer to reconstruct the first deduplication information in a mannerthat causes the second data storage computer to: retrieve thereplication of the first data stored in the third partition, parse thereplication of the first data to identify a first data block and a firstlink, generate a signature for the first data block, store the signatureof the first data block and a storage location of the first data blockin the third partition in a second deduplication database, identify anumber of times the first data block is used using the first link, andstore the number of times the first data block is used in the seconddeduplication database; where the first I/O request is a write requestthat comprises a second data block, and wherein sending the first I/Orequest to the second data storage computer further comprises sendingthe first I/O request to the second data storage computer in a mannerthat causes the second data storage computer to: generate a signature ofthe second data block, compare the signature of the second data blockwith the signature of the first data block, and store the second datablock in the third partition in response to a determination that thesignature of the second data block does not match the signature of thefirst data block; where the first I/O request is a write request thatcomprises a second data block, and wherein sending the first I/O requestto the second data storage computer further comprises sending the firstI/O request to the second data storage computer in a manner that causesthe second data storage computer to: generate a signature of the seconddata block, compare the signature of the second data block with thesignature of the first data block, and store a link to the first datablock in the third partition in place of the second data block inresponse to a determination that the signature of the second data blockmatches the signature of the first data block.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a networked informationmanagement system configured to automatically configure installed datastorage computers. The networked information management systemcomprises: a first data storage computer comprising first computerhardware; a first secondary storage device managed by the first datastorage computer, wherein the first secondary storage device comprises afirst hard disk and a second hard disk; a second data storage computercomprising second computer hardware; a second secondary storage devicemanaged by the second data storage computer, wherein the secondsecondary storage device comprises a third hard disk and a fourth harddisk; a third data storage computer comprising third computer hardware,wherein the third data storage computer is installed in the networkedinformation management system after the first data storage computer andthe second data storage computer; a third secondary storage devicemanaged by the third data storage computer, wherein the third secondarystorage devices comprises a fifth hard disk and a sixth hard disk; and astorage manager comprising computer hardware configured to: detect thatthe third data storage computer is installed in the networkedinformation management system, associate the first hard disk, the thirdhard disk, and the fifth hard disk such that the first hard disk, thethird hard disk, and the fifth hard disk together store data for a firstfile system, and associate the second hard disk, the fourth hard disk,and the sixth hard disk such that the second hard disk, the fourth harddisk, and the sixth hard disk together store data for a second filesystem, where the first data storage computer continues to receiveinput/output (I/O) requests for the second hard disk after a failure ofthe first hard disk.

The networked information management system of the preceding paragraphcan include any sub-combination of the following features: where thestorage manager is further configured to redirect a first I/O requestintended for the first data storage computer and the first file systemto one of the second data storage computer or the third data storagecomputer after the failure of the first hard disk; where the second datastorage computer is configured to process the first I/O request usingthe third hard disk; where the third data storage computer is configuredto process the first I/O request using the fifth hard disk; where thestorage manager is further configured to direct a first I/O requestintended for the second file system to the first data storage computerafter the failure of the first hard disk, after a failure of the fourthhard disk, or after a failure of the sixth hard disk; where the failureof the first hard disk does not result in a failure of the first datastorage computer; and where the storage manager is further configured toperform a parity replication operation on the first, third, and fifthhard disks.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a computer-implemented methodfor automatically configuring installed data storage computers. Thecomputer-implemented method comprises: detecting a presence of a firstdata storage computer and a second data storage computer, wherein afirst secondary storage device is managed by the first data storagecomputer, wherein the first secondary storage device comprises a firsthard disk and a second hard disk, wherein a second secondary storagedevice is managed by the second data storage computer, and wherein thesecond secondary storage device comprises a third hard disk and a fourthhard disk; detecting that a third data storage computer is installed,wherein the third data storage computer is installed after the firstdata storage computer and the second data storage computer, wherein athird secondary storage device is managed by the third data storagecomputer, and wherein the third secondary storage devices comprises afifth hard disk and a sixth hard disk; associating the first hard disk,the third hard disk, and the fifth hard disk such that the first harddisk, the third hard disk, and the fifth hard disk together store datafor a first file system; and associating the second hard disk, thefourth hard disk, and the sixth hard disk such that the second harddisk, the fourth hard disk, and the sixth hard disk together store datafor a second file system.

The computer-implemented method of the preceding paragraph can includeany sub-combination of the following features: where the method furthercomprises redirecting a first input/output (I/O) request intended forthe first data storage computer and the first file system to one of thesecond data storage computer or the third data storage computer after afailure of the first hard disk; where the second data storage computeris configured to process the first I/O request using the third harddisk; where the third data storage computer is configured to process thefirst I/O request using the fifth hard disk; where the method furthercomprises directing a first input/output (I/O) request intended for thesecond file system to the first data storage computer after at least oneof a failure of the first hard disk, a failure of the fourth hard disk,or a failure of the sixth hard disk; where a failure of the first harddisk does not result in a failure of the first data storage computer;and where the method further comprises performing a parity replicationoperation on the first, third, and fifth hard disks.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a networked informationmanagement system configured to automatically configure installed datastorage computers. The networked information management systemcomprises: a first secondary storage device managed by a first datastorage computer, wherein the first secondary storage device comprises afirst hard disk and a second hard disk; a second secondary storagedevice managed by a second data storage computer, wherein the secondsecondary storage device comprises a third hard disk and a fourth harddisk; a third secondary storage device managed by a third data storagecomputer, wherein the third secondary storage devices comprises a fifthhard disk and a sixth hard disk; and a storage manager comprisingcomputer hardware configured to: detect that the third data storagecomputer is installed in the networked information management system,associate the first hard disk, the third hard disk, and the fifth harddisk such that the first hard disk, the third hard disk, and the fifthhard disk together store data for a first file system, and associate thesecond hard disk, the fourth hard disk, and the sixth hard disk suchthat the second hard disk, the fourth hard disk, and the sixth hard disktogether store data for a second file system.

The networked information management system of the preceding paragraphcan include any sub-combination of the following features: where thestorage manager is further configured to redirect a first I/O requestintended for the first data storage computer and the first file systemto one of the second data storage computer or the third data storagecomputer after a failure of the first hard disk; where the second datastorage computer is configured to process the first I/O request usingthe third hard disk; where the third data storage computer is configuredto process the first I/O request using the fifth hard disk; where thestorage manager is further configured to direct a first I/O requestintended for the second file system to the first data storage computerafter at least one of a failure of the first hard disk, a failure of thefourth hard disk, or a failure of the sixth hard disk; and where thestorage manager is further configured to perform a parity replicationoperation on the first, third, and fifth hard disks.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a networked informationmanagement system configured to identify disk failures. The networkedinformation management system comprises: a first secondary storagedevice comprising a disk; a first data storage computer comprising firstcomputer hardware, wherein the first data storage computer is configuredto: transmit a write request to the first secondary storage device,wherein the write request comprises a request to write first data to thedisk of the first secondary storage device, transmit a read request tothe first secondary storage device, wherein the read request comprises arequest to read the first data from the disk of the first secondarystorage device, and determine that the disk of the first secondarystorage device is failing based on results received from the firstsecondary storage device in response to the read request, wherein theresults comprise a unique identifier of the disk of the first secondarystorage device; and a storage manager comprising second computerhardware configured to: receive, from the first data storage computer,an indication that the disk of the first secondary storage device isfailing and the unique identifier, identify a location of the disk ofthe first secondary storage device based on the unique identifier,generate user interface data that causes a user device to display a userinterface, wherein the user interface data comprises a graphicalrepresentation of locations of the disk of the first secondary storagedevice and other disks of the first secondary storage device, andwherein the user interface data comprises a notification identifying thelocation of the disk of the first secondary storage device in thegraphical representation, and transmit the user interface data to theuser device.

The networked information management system of the preceding paragraphcan include any sub-combination of the following features: where thelocation of the disk of the first secondary storage device comprises anindication of a bay and a slot in the bay in which the disk of the firstsecondary storage device is located; where the notification comprises atleast one of a marking identifying the location of the disk of the firstsecondary storage device or text identifying the location of the disk ofthe first secondary storage device; where the method further comprises amanagement database configured to store the unique identifier of thedisk of the first secondary storage device and a location of the disk ofthe first secondary storage device; where the storage manager is furtherconfigured to query the management database using the unique identifierreceived from the first data storage computer to identify the locationof the disk of the first secondary storage device; where the userinterface data further comprises text that instructs a user to replacethe disk of the first secondary storage device; where the first datastorage computer is further configured to periodically check a status ofthe first secondary storage device; and where the unique identifiercomprises a serial number of the disk of the first secondary storagedevice.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a computer-implemented methodfor identifying disk failures. The computer-implemented methodcomprises: receiving, from a first data storage computer, an indicationthat a disk of a first secondary storage device is failing and a uniqueidentifier of the disk of the first secondary storage device;identifying a location of the disk of the first secondary storage devicebased on the unique identifier; generating user interface data thatcauses a user device to display a user interface, wherein the userinterface data comprises a graphical representation of locations of thedisk of the first secondary storage device and other disks of the firstsecondary storage device, and wherein the user interface data comprisesa notification identifying the location of the disk of the firstsecondary storage device in the graphical representation; andtransmitting the user interface data to the user device.

The computer-implemented method of the preceding paragraph can includeany sub-combination of the following features: where the location of thedisk of the first secondary storage device comprises an indication of abay and a slot in the bay in which the disk of the first secondarystorage device is located; where the notification comprises at least oneof a marking identifying the location of the disk of the first secondarystorage device or text identifying the location of the disk of the firstsecondary storage device; where a management database is configured tostore the unique identifier of the disk of the first secondary storagedevice and a location of the disk of the first secondary storage device;where identifying a location of the disk of the first secondary storagedevice further comprises querying the management database using theunique identifier received from the first data storage computer toidentify the location of the disk of the first secondary storage device;where the user interface data further comprises text that instructs auser to replace the disk of the first secondary storage device; wherethe method further comprises receiving an indication that the disk ofthe first secondary storage device is replaced with a second disk, andinstructing the first secondary storage device to perform a repairoperation on the second disk in response to receiving the indicationthat the disk of the first secondary storage device is replaced with thesecond disk; where the method further comprises receiving an indicationthat the disk of the first secondary storage device is replaced with asecond disk, and modifying the user interface data to remove thenotification identifying the location of the disk of the first secondarystorage device in the graphical representation in response to receivingthe indication that the disk of the first secondary storage device isreplaced with the second disk; where receiving an indication that a diskof a first secondary storage device is failing further comprisesreceiving the indication that the disk of the first secondary storagedevice is failing as a result of a periodic check of a status of thedisk of the first secondary storage device by the first data storagecomputer; and where the unique identifier comprises a serial number ofthe disk of the first secondary storage device.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a networked informationmanagement system configured to identify disk failures. The networkedinformation management system comprises: a first secondary storagedevice comprising a disk; a first data storage computer comprising firstcomputer hardware, wherein the first data storage computer is configuredto receive an indication that the disk of the first secondary storagedevice is failing as a result of a periodic status check performed bythe disk of the first secondary storage device; and a storage managercomprising second computer hardware configured to: receive, from thefirst data storage computer, the indication that the disk of the firstsecondary storage device is failing and a unique identifier associatedwith the disk of the first secondary storage device, identify a locationof the disk of the first secondary storage device based on the uniqueidentifier, generate user interface data that causes a user device todisplay a user interface, wherein the user interface data comprises agraphical representation of locations of the disk of the first secondarystorage device and other disks of the first secondary storage device,and wherein the user interface data comprises a notification identifyingthe location of the disk of the first secondary storage device in thegraphical representation, and transmit the user interface data to theuser device.

The networked information management system of the preceding paragraphcan include any sub-combination of the following features: where thenotification comprises at least one of a marking identifying thelocation of the disk of the first secondary storage device or textidentifying the location of the disk of the first secondary storagedevice.

In other embodiments, a system or systems may operate according to oneor more of the methods and/or computer-readable media recited in thepreceding paragraphs. In yet other embodiments, a method or methods mayoperate according to one or more of the systems and/or computer-readablemedia recited in the preceding paragraphs. In yet more embodiments, acomputer-readable medium or media, excluding transitory propagatingsignals, may cause one or more computing devices having one or moreprocessors and non-transitory computer-readable memory to operateaccording to one or more of the systems and/or methods recited in thepreceding paragraphs.

Terminology

Conditional language, such as, among others, “can,” “could,” “might,” or“may,” unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understoodwithin the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certainembodiments include, while other embodiments do not include, certainfeatures, elements and/or steps. Thus, such conditional language is notgenerally intended to imply that features, elements and/or steps are inany way required for one or more embodiments or that one or moreembodiments necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without userinput or prompting, whether these features, elements and/or steps areincluded or are to be performed in any particular embodiment.

Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout thedescription and the claims, the words “comprise,” “comprising,” and thelike are to be construed in an inclusive sense, as opposed to anexclusive or exhaustive sense, i.e., in the sense of “including, but notlimited to.” As used herein, the terms “connected,” “coupled,” or anyvariant thereof means any connection or coupling, either direct orindirect, between two or more elements; the coupling or connectionbetween the elements can be physical, logical, or a combination thereof.Additionally, the words “herein,” “above,” “below,” and words of similarimport, when used in this application, refer to this application as awhole and not to any particular portions of this application. Where thecontext permits, words using the singular or plural number may alsoinclude the plural or singular number respectively. The word “or” inreference to a list of two or more items, covers all of the followinginterpretations of the word: any one of the items in the list, all ofthe items in the list, and any combination of the items in the list.Likewise the term “and/or” in reference to a list of two or more items,covers all of the following interpretations of the word: any one of theitems in the list, all of the items in the list, and any combination ofthe items in the list.

In some embodiments, certain operations, acts, events, or functions ofany of the algorithms described herein can be performed in a differentsequence, can be added, merged, or left out altogether (e.g., not allare necessary for the practice of the algorithms). In certainembodiments, operations, acts, functions, or events can be performedconcurrently, e.g., through multi-threaded processing, interruptprocessing, or multiple processors or processor cores or on otherparallel architectures, rather than sequentially.

Systems and modules described herein may comprise software, firmware,hardware, or any combination(s) of software, firmware, or hardwaresuitable for the purposes described. Software and other modules mayreside and execute on servers, workstations, personal computers,computerized tablets, PDAs, and other computing devices suitable for thepurposes described herein. Software and other modules may be accessiblevia local computer memory, via a network, via a browser, or via othermeans suitable for the purposes described herein. Data structuresdescribed herein may comprise computer files, variables, programmingarrays, programming structures, or any electronic information storageschemes or methods, or any combinations thereof, suitable for thepurposes described herein. User interface elements described herein maycomprise elements from graphical user interfaces, interactive voiceresponse, command line interfaces, and other suitable interfaces.

Further, processing of the various components of the illustrated systemscan be distributed across multiple machines, networks, and othercomputing resources. Two or more components of a system can be combinedinto fewer components. Various components of the illustrated systems canbe implemented in one or more virtual machines, rather than in dedicatedcomputer hardware systems and/or computing devices. Likewise, the datarepositories shown can represent physical and/or logical data storage,including, e.g., storage area networks or other distributed storagesystems. Moreover, in some embodiments the connections between thecomponents shown represent possible paths of data flow, rather thanactual connections between hardware. While some examples of possibleconnections are shown, any of the subset of the components shown cancommunicate with any other subset of components in variousimplementations.

Embodiments are also described above with reference to flow chartillustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) andcomputer program products. Each block of the flow chart illustrationsand/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flow chartillustrations and/or block diagrams, may be implemented by computerprogram instructions. Such instructions may be provided to a processorof a general purpose computer, special purpose computer,specially-equipped computer (e.g., comprising a high-performancedatabase server, a graphics subsystem, etc.) or other programmable dataprocessing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions,which execute via the processor(s) of the computer or other programmabledata processing apparatus, create means for implementing the actsspecified in the flow chart and/or block diagram block or blocks. Thesecomputer program instructions may also be stored in a non-transitorycomputer-readable memory that can direct a computer or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus to operate in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablememory produce an article of manufacture including instruction meanswhich implement the acts specified in the flow chart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks. The computer program instructions may also beloaded to a computing device or other programmable data processingapparatus to cause operations to be performed on the computing device orother programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented processsuch that the instructions which execute on the computing device orother programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the actsspecified in the flow chart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

Any patents and applications and other references noted above, includingany that may be listed in accompanying filing papers, are incorporatedherein by reference. Aspects of the invention can be modified, ifnecessary, to employ the systems, functions, and concepts of the variousreferences described above to provide yet further implementations of theinvention. These and other changes can be made to the invention in lightof the above Detailed Description. While the above description describescertain examples of the invention, and describes the best modecontemplated, no matter how detailed the above appears in text, theinvention can be practiced in many ways. Details of the system may varyconsiderably in its specific implementation, while still beingencompassed by the invention disclosed herein. As noted above,particular terminology used when describing certain features or aspectsof the invention should not be taken to imply that the terminology isbeing redefined herein to be restricted to any specific characteristics,features, or aspects of the invention with which that terminology isassociated. In general, the terms used in the following claims shouldnot be construed to limit the invention to the specific examplesdisclosed in the specification, unless the above Detailed Descriptionsection explicitly defines such terms. Accordingly, the actual scope ofthe invention encompasses not only the disclosed examples, but also allequivalent ways of practicing or implementing the invention under theclaims.

To reduce the number of claims, certain aspects of the invention arepresented below in certain claim forms, but the applicant contemplatesother aspects of the invention in any number of claim forms. Forexample, while only one aspect of the invention is recited as ameans-plus-function claim under 35 U.S.C sec. 112(f) (AIA), otheraspects may likewise be embodied as a means-plus-function claim, or inother forms, such as being embodied in a computer-readable medium. Anyclaims intended to be treated under 35 U.S.C. §112(f) will begin withthe words “means for”, but use of the term “for” in any other context isnot intended to invoke treatment under 35 U.S.C. §112(f). Accordingly,the applicant reserves the right to pursue additional claims afterfiling this application, in either this application or in a continuingapplication.

What is claimed is:
 1. A networked information management systemconfigured to identify disk failures, the networked informationmanagement system comprising: a first secondary storage devicecomprising a disk; a first data storage computer comprising firstcomputer hardware, wherein the first data storage computer is configuredto: transmit a write request to the first secondary storage device,wherein the write request comprises a request to write first data to thedisk of the first secondary storage device, transmit a read request tothe first secondary storage device, wherein the read request comprises arequest to read the first data from the disk of the first secondarystorage device, determine that the disk of the first secondary storagedevice is failing based on results received from the first secondarystorage device in response to the read request, wherein the resultscomprise a unique identifier of the disk of the first secondary storagedevice; and a storage manager comprising second computer hardwareconfigured to: receive, from the first data storage computer, anindication that the disk of the first secondary storage device isfailing and the unique identifier, identify a location of the disk ofthe first secondary storage device based on the unique identifier,generate user interface data that causes a user device to display a userinterface, wherein the user interface data comprises a graphicalrepresentation of locations of the disk of the first secondary storagedevice and other disks of the first secondary storage device, andwherein the user interface data comprises a notification identifying thelocation of the disk of the first secondary storage device in thegraphical representation, and transmit the user interface data to theuser device.
 2. The networked information management system of claim 1,wherein the location of the disk of the first secondary storage devicecomprises an indication of a bay and a slot in the bay in which the diskof the first secondary storage device is located.
 3. The networkedinformation management system of claim 1, wherein the notificationcomprises at least one of a marking identifying the location of the diskof the first secondary storage device or text identifying the locationof the disk of the first secondary storage device.
 4. The networkedinformation management system of claim 1, further comprising amanagement database configured to store the unique identifier of thedisk of the first secondary storage device and a location of the disk ofthe first secondary storage device.
 5. The networked informationmanagement system of claim 4, wherein the storage manager is furtherconfigured to query the management database using the unique identifierreceived from the first data storage computer to identify the locationof the disk of the first secondary storage device.
 6. The networkedinformation management system of claim 1, wherein the user interfacedata further comprises text that instructs a user to replace the disk ofthe first secondary storage device.
 7. The networked informationmanagement system of claim 1, wherein the first data storage computer isfurther configured to periodically check a status of the first secondarystorage device.
 8. The networked information management system of claim1, wherein the unique identifier comprises a serial number of the diskof the first secondary storage device.
 9. A computer-implemented methodfor identifying disk failures, the computer-implemented methodcomprising: receiving, from a first data storage computer, an indicationthat a disk of a first secondary storage device is failing and a uniqueidentifier of the disk of the first secondary storage device;identifying a location of the disk of the first secondary storage devicebased on the unique identifier; generating user interface data thatcauses a user device to display a user interface, wherein the userinterface data comprises a graphical representation of locations of thedisk of the first secondary storage device and other disks of the firstsecondary storage device, and wherein the user interface data comprisesa notification identifying the location of the disk of the firstsecondary storage device in the graphical representation; andtransmitting the user interface data to the user device.
 10. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the location of the diskof the first secondary storage device comprises an indication of a bayand a slot in the bay in which the disk of the first secondary storagedevice is located.
 11. The computer-implemented method of claim 9,wherein the notification comprises at least one of a marking identifyingthe location of the disk of the first secondary storage device or textidentifying the location of the disk of the first secondary storagedevice.
 12. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein amanagement database is configured to store the unique identifier of thedisk of the first secondary storage device and a location of the disk ofthe first secondary storage device.
 13. The computer-implemented methodof claim 12, wherein identifying a location of the disk of the firstsecondary storage device further comprises querying the managementdatabase using the unique identifier received from the first datastorage computer to identify the location of the disk of the firstsecondary storage device.
 14. The computer-implemented method of claim9, wherein the user interface data further comprises text that instructsa user to replace the disk of the first secondary storage device. 15.The computer-implemented method of claim 9, further comprising:receiving an indication that the disk of the first secondary storagedevice is replaced with a second disk; and instructing the firstsecondary storage device to perform a repair operation on the seconddisk in response to receiving the indication that the disk of the firstsecondary storage device is replaced with the second disk.
 16. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 9, further comprising: receiving anindication that the disk of the first secondary storage device isreplaced with a second disk; and modifying the user interface data toremove the notification identifying the location of the disk of thefirst secondary storage device in the graphical representation inresponse to receiving the indication that the disk of the firstsecondary storage device is replaced with the second disk.
 17. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein receiving an indicationthat a disk of a first secondary storage device is failing furthercomprises receiving the indication that the disk of the first secondarystorage device is failing as a result of a periodic check of a status ofthe disk of the first secondary storage device by the first data storagecomputer.
 18. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein theunique identifier comprises a serial number of the disk of the firstsecondary storage device.
 19. A networked information management systemconfigured to identify disk failures, the networked informationmanagement system comprising: a first secondary storage devicecomprising a disk; a first data storage computer comprising firstcomputer hardware, wherein the first data storage computer is configuredto receive an indication that the disk of the first secondary storagedevice is failing as a result of a periodic status check performed bythe disk of the first secondary storage device; and a storage managercomprising second computer hardware configured to: receive, from thefirst data storage computer, the indication that the disk of the firstsecondary storage device is failing and a unique identifier associatedwith the disk of the first secondary storage device, identify a locationof the disk of the first secondary storage device based on the uniqueidentifier, generate user interface data that causes a user device todisplay a user interface, wherein the user interface data comprises agraphical representation of locations of the disk of the first secondarystorage device and other disks of the first secondary storage device,and wherein the user interface data comprises a notification identifyingthe location of the disk of the first secondary storage device in thegraphical representation, and transmit the user interface data to theuser device.
 20. The networked information management system of claim19, wherein the notification comprises at least one of a markingidentifying the location of the disk of the first secondary storagedevice or text identifying the location of the disk of the firstsecondary storage device.